The Swing!
Lose the Fat and Get Fit
with This Revolutionary
Kettlebell Program
Tracy Reifkind
Dedication
To my husband Mark,
the strongest man I know
Contents
Cover
Title page
Dedication
Foreword
Introduction
Part One: Mind
1 The Great Discovery: Hope
2 Reconnecting with Your Body
3 Get Over It!
4 The Right Mind-Set
5 The Entry Point
Part Two: Body
6 Get the Body You Want in Less Time
7 Getting Ready to Swing
8 Learning the Kettlebell Swing
9 The Swing Workouts
Part Three: Food
10 Learning How to Feed You
11 Putting It All into Practice
12 Recipes for Real Life
Part Four: You Won the Lottery
13 The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Daily Eating Journal
Appendix B: The Swing! Workout Journals
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Foreword
I met Tracy Reifkind while researching
remarkable stories of physical
transformation for my book The 4-Hour
Body. And what a remarkable story it
was. At 250 pounds, Tracy was faced
with growing health problems caused by
being overweight for most of her adult
life. Then, for reasons you’ll learn more
about, Tracy did something that few
forty-one-year-olds in her position think
possible—she made small, but highly
effective, changes in her exercise and
diet that changed everything. What she
discovered is that one of the best-kept
secrets of fat-loss, regardless of
gender, is a weapon used by strong
men: the kettlebell.
That wasn’t the whole story. It gets much more elegant.
Even the experts underestimate the astounding
effectiveness of the most fundamental kettlebell
movement: the swing. Nothing else is necessary.
Tracy’s genius is in creating a program based on a
dynamic progression of easy-to-follow swing
movements—from beginner to master—that will
transform anyone, and I don’t use “transform” lightly.
Together with her own inspiring story, her practical tips
for shifting both your mind-set and way of eating will get
you on the road to sustainable and lasting change. To
use a technical phrase, her approach kicks serious ass.
Whether you’re trying to lose the last few extra pounds
or taking on a bigger challenge, just as Tracy did, The
Swing! will make the kettlebell your new best friend and
chief ally.
Give it even eight weeks and you won’t recognize
yourself.
Enjoy!
Tim Ferriss
author of #1 New York Times bestsellers
The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body
Introduction
I think about the miracle of the kettlebell
each time I see my reflection in the
mirror. I call it a miracle, I call it luck, and
I call it finding the pot of gold. Not only
did training the kettlebell swing help me
lose 120 pounds at the age of forty-one
after having tried just about every other
type of training regimen, it made me
stronger, fitter, and leaner, and it has
motivated me to live up to my physical
potential. I want everyone to know about
it; I want everyone to fall in love with it,
like I did.
First and foremost, I love the kettlebell swing because it
burns more calories than any other physical activity
except for uphill cross-country skiing—and who does
that? I also loved the thrill of saying goodbye to hours
upon hours spent every week on cardio equipment that
wasn’t doing a fraction of what swinging a kettlebell
could help me accomplish in thirty minutes or less, just a
couple days a week. The swing combines strength
training and cardio fitness, and it gave me something I
never had before: cardio strength endurance … oh, and
some killer shoulders, arms, and abs! You won’t get all
that from a StairMaster.
In The Swing!, I am going to teach you how to transform
your own life by swinging a kettlebell and establishing
smarter eating habits. You can do this, and you don’t
need to wait for some professional team to come along
and save you, or pay $1,000 a month for a personal
trainer to help you change your body—your chance has
arrived right now, in the form of this book.
I’m confident you’re going to fall for the kettlebell swing
just as I did. Yes, the kettlebell is the only piece of
equipment you’ll ever need to transform your body. And,
sure, you can swing it at home—outside on your patio,
in the living room or even the hallway, or out in the
garage, where I started training and still train to this day.
Yes, that means you will never have to step foot in a
gym again (or pay for a gym membership that you never
use). But the best part of the kettlebell is that it’s fun. At
least it is when you swing it, which I’m going to teach
you to do. Here are a few more reasons why you’re
going to love it:
It feels natural. The swing is a primal motion that is not
evoked in any other exercise program. Whether you’re
uncoordinated or an agile athlete, you will pick up the
movement quickly. This is partially because the swing is
one of the first motions our bodies are exposed to in
childhood: we’re rocked to sleep, lulled by the soothing
motion, and we’ve spent hours on the playground
swings as we were growing up. Yet the kettlebell swing
is no lullaby or a mere thrill ride—it’ll infuse you with
energy and strength. No matter what your fitness
background, it’ll feel exhilarating.
It’s no dumbbell. If you think you’ve tried the kettlebell
because you’ve tried lifting weights, think again. There
are plenty of static movements that you can do with a
kettlebell that are similar to those done with a dumbbell.
What you can’t do with a dumbbell is swing it—the
kettlebell handle gives it an advantage over every other
form of weight-resistance exercise.
You get two workouts in one. The kettlebell swing is
both aerobic and anaerobic, so you get strength and
cardio in one workout. The result is an unmatched
potential for cardio conditioning and fat loss. Unless you
start running an hour of six-minute miles or climbing up
a hill on skis, you won’t find a higher caloric burn.
You will not get bored. When I started training with the
swing, I thought there was no way I could stick with one
movement to change my body without getting bored. So
I started choreographing combinations that would keep
me busy, entertained, and distracted from the repetition
of a single movement. I discovered an endless
possibility for combinations that build endurance and
work capacity while promoting body transformation in
record time.
In The Swing!, I’m also going to teach you how to feed
yourself, because even the highest caloric burn can’t
out-burn overeating! To reveal the amazing tone and
shape you’re going to create with the swing, you’ve got
to also strip away any extra weight you have on your
body.
When people ask me how I lost all my extra weight, I
often tell them I stopped doing what was making me fat.
I was an extreme overeater—I was eating more than
four times what I eat now, sometimes up to 5,000
calories a day. It doesn’t take nearly that much to have
extra fat on your body, which is why the first tenet of the
Swing Diet is to lower your calories. Don’t let the lowcalorie initiative fool you, though—I still love to eat, so I
created a diet that allows you to add volume to your
plate while significantly cutting calories.
The Essential Combination
So there it is: swing a kettlebell + eat fewer calories =
the essential combination for body transformation (this
applies whether you want to lose 15 pounds or more
than 100). You might be thinking it doesn’t sound all that
groundbreaking, but here’s why this combination has an
advantage over everything else you’ve ever tried: it
creates real, visible results quickly—as soon as after
the first four workouts.
Before I discovered the swing, I had spent decades
trying various types of exercise and different diets, and
nothing ever clicked for me. I didn’t see results fast
enough to create momentum or to get me permanently
into the rhythm of living a healthier, fitter lifestyle. Being
married to an athlete, I had witnessed plenty of people
around me who had long ago picked up the rhythm and
never looked back—their diet and exercise habits were
so ingrained into their lives that they weren’t even
challenged by their weight (you know the type—those
friends or family members of yours who seem to have
missed the memo saying, “Weight loss is a universal
struggle”).
I came to the conclusion that truly healthy and fit people
don’t have to think about how to become healthy and fit,
it’s who they are—it’s not a chore, a punishment, or
even a choice. Forget second nature; for them, it is first
nature. The question for me then became: how do you
make something first nature?
I didn’t experience an instantaneous flip of a switch
when I first started swinging the kettlebell and making all
of my own foods. But after just four swing sessions, I
noticed something that supercharged my motivation—it
wasn’t just a feeling, but something I saw in a dressing
room mirror: my sculpted shoulders and toned triceps,
my body being transformed from chubby and soft to fit
and firm. And from that point on, I never looked back. I
kept swinging, I kept eating well, and I never felt like I
had to sacrifice anything. I was no longer trying so hard
to change my body—I had picked up the rhythm, I had
found the key to creating habits that became first
nature!
After so many years of trying to figure it all out, I realized
it’s really incredibly simple—no one wants to stick with
something that doesn’t produce results. I can tell you
about my results from the kettlebell swing: I lost 120
pounds and have kept it off for six years; I went from a
size 24 to a size 6; I used to get tired from just walking
around a mall, but now I have inexhaustible energy. But
I’d also like to show you what my starting point really
looked like:
This is me before I lost 120 pounds and went from a size
24 to a size 6!
it’s your turn to pick up the kettlebell swing and finally
Now
get the results you’ve always wanted. If you’re tired of
wasting time at the gym, sweating through step classes,
logging hours on the treadmill, getting beat up in some boot
camp, or jumping up and down in your living room to a
useless DVD—if you’re ready to finally see the results that
will inspire and motivate you like never before—I invite you
to try the swing!
PART ONE
Mind
1 The Great Discovery: Hope
“My name is Tracy Reifkind, and over
the last year, I have maintained a weight
loss of 120 pounds. I’m forty-three
years old, 130 pounds, and 20 percent
body fat, size 6.” That’s how my story
started in 2006.
Now, several years later, I can say that not only have I
maintained my weight loss but also that on the verge of
turning fifty, my body is better than ever. I feel strong,
sexy, and confident, and I have more energy than I did in
my twenties. And it all started with one swing of a
kettlebell.
The kettlebell swing changed my body in a way nothing
else ever did or—I’m convinced now—ever could. I lost
a lot of weight, but I had lost weight before. What I hadn’t
ever done was fallen in love with my body, from the way
it looked to how it made me feel each day. In fact, up
until I discovered the swing, I felt a complete disconnect
from my body—like there was a very good chance that I
had ended up in a fat body that didn’t really belong to
me.
I knew that inside, buried under the walls of flesh that I
had put up around myself, there lurked a better version
of me. I knew that inside there existed the most
incredible, dynamic, and strong woman. I knew that I
was a living and breathing example of unrealized
potential.
And I know that’s where you are now. Most likely, you
don’t have more than 100 pounds to lose, like I did—
maybe your goal is to finally lose 20 pounds or 60, or to
simply increase your strength, or to get great-looking
arms—but you are filled with a voice that says, “You’re
not as amazing as you could be.”
In The Swing!, I’m going to give you the program that will
allow you to trade that thought in for this one: “I don’t
want anybody’s body but my own.” Jennifer Aniston?
“Nope.” Jessica Alba? “Nah, I like my body, thanks.”
That’s where I am now; I wouldn’t trade my body in for
the world. It took me decades to be able to say that, but
you’re not going to have to wait that long—the path for
your very own transformation exists right here in this
book.
It’s All in the Rhythm
It should come as no surprise that to get on the path to
body transformation, you have to incorporate exercise
and establish smarter eating habits. It sounds so
simple, and yet just about everyone seems to be
frustrated with weight or a lack of bodily control. I tried
countless times to lose weight, but I could never stick
with anything—I felt like I was always fighting the
changes I had to make; they never felt natural.
That all changed when I discovered the kettlebell swing
and learned how to feed myself nourishing, fulfilling, and
delicious foods. When I discovered this combination, I
realized that when the formula is right, the solution
comes easily. And the formula isn’t even a complicated
one—it involves methods that will feel very familiar, even
natural, to you.
The motion of the swing itself draws on a very soothing,
almost meditative flow that feels comfortable, instead of
restrictive or forced. The rhythm of the exercise—the
back and forth of the weight, like a pendulum—puts you
in touch with your body, and it reminds you that your
muscles were made to move. I know it may seem hard
to believe that I’m talking about exercise, but just wait
until you try it!
Not only does the motion of the kettlebell swing feel
right, it also provides the most intense calorie burn
without requiring a significant time investment. There’s
a complicated explanation (see How It Works) for the
swing’s incomparable efficiency, but the simplest way to
explain it is to say that it’s like getting a two-for-one deal
—even though you’re doing just one exercise, you’re
actually getting the benefits and caloric burn of two
types of exercise: strength training and cardiovascular
conditioning.
Part of the beauty of creating an aerobic and anaerobic
workout at the same time is that you get the benefits of
both. Your kettlebell swings will help you build strength
and create muscle tone, improve muscle endurance
and lung capacity, and build power and explosiveness
for other sports and activities. And without a doubt, they
will accelerate fat burn, helping you reveal visible results
in as little as four swing sessions. I still remember the
first time I saw my new body taking shape—it was an
unforgettable turning point for me.
The Girl in the Mirror
I had been doing the kettlebell swing for only a few
weeks when I first noticed results. I was in a department
store dressing room where I was trying on a pair of
jeans, and I saw something in the mirror that stopped
me in my tracks. The motion of pulling up a pair of
smaller-sized jeans revealed a shoulder and triceps
muscle tone that didn’t seem familiar on my body; it had
to belong to an athlete or at the very least a fit woman. I
had been 250 pounds for the last ten years of my life—
this couldn’t possibly be my body, but it was. To see this
shape on my own body was a life-changing vision—my
true body was breaking through.
Up until that point in my life, I had felt my body wasn’t my
own. Even as a kid, I was chubby—I didn’t know what it
felt like to do a cartwheel or to hang from the monkey
bars, or to enjoy any other popular childhood activities.
In my twenties, I tried just about everything to change my
body: weight lifting, different types of cardio, diet foods,
diet pills … you name it.
I got especially into bodybuilding during the ’80s and
even became a regular at Gold’s Gym, performing my
shoulder raises, bicep curls, and chest presses like a
mad woman. Still, I never saw so much as a toned arm.
(I would say that all my hours at that gym were wasted,
but that wouldn’t be true—I met the love of my life there!)
As I gained and lost weight over the years, my body only
got smaller or bigger, never shapelier.
The Truth About Gyms
Most exercise machines at the gym will not help you
lose weight. Think about it—how many overweight
people do you see at the average gym? Not many.
Most of the people you see there have already lost
weight and are working out to maintain their fitness.
Those who have more than 10 pounds to lose won’t
stick around long because they just will not see the
results they’re hoping for. Here’s why: with gym
machines, you don’t burn enough calories to create
significant change in your weight, let alone to reveal
muscle or tone. If the average person jogs on the
treadmill for thirty minutes, he will have burned about
130 calories; two bites of a Snickers candy bar, and
you’re right back to where you started.
When you learn the kettlebell swing, you’re going to
more than double that caloric burn, working your way
up to torching nearly 300 calories in just twenty
minutes. Keep in mind that even with a burn like that,
the importance of diet doesn’t disappear—it’s an
essential companion to exercise, always and forever.
In my thirties, I only seemed to get bigger, gaining
weight steadily through the decade. By forty-one, my
body was tired and beat up, my insides and internal
organs were swimming in fatty tissue, my face was
bloated and saggy, my energy dragging each day.
I became convinced that I was always going to have a
problem with my weight. I chalked it up to genetics—a
fit, healthy body just wasn’t in my genes. Other women
could create a bikini body, gorgeous strong arms, or a
flat tummy, but not me. So you can imagine how startling
it was to see beautiful shape developing in my body.
When I saw myself in the mirror, I knew right then and
there that I had the kettlebell swings to thank because
nothing else I had ever tried had produced this effect.
The swing had begun to transform my body, and the
results were so undeniable and impressive, I was more
motivated than ever to keep going.
Hungry for More… Results
When I first started training with the swing, it hadn’t been
implemented as the core activity in any exercise
program. Athletes and military crews were using it as
part of a cross-training program, but no one was using it
as a stand-alone exercise. It seemed strange to me that
the most perfect exercise was only being used as a
small part of a larger session rather than being treated
as the star it was.
After time, I discovered that the one movement of the
swing could be designed into many different
combinations using just your two hands. One movement
+ one bell = endless variety. I set out to choreograph
combinations that would keep me busy, entertained,
and distracted from the repetition of only one
movement, all the while building endurance and work
capacity, and promoting an unmatched potential for
cardio conditioning and fat loss. The result: an
unbeatable workout that promotes body transformation
in record time.
Once I created my own swing progressions for my
workouts, there was no stopping me. My personal
results were so incredible that I knew I had to teach
others, which meant becoming a certified kettlebell
trainer. I obtained my RKC (Russian Kettlebell
Certification) and started actively blogging my workout
routines and creating video demonstrations of my
workout methods. Quite a few people started following
my routines rep for rep, just doing the workouts as I had
written them out online. I was having so much fun doing
my own swing routines that I started teaching them in
person, and the feedback was incredible, which
eventually led to creating DVDs of the workouts. I
couldn’t believe my personal transformation had led to
such amazing opportunities—and I’m still pinching
myself.
I also started to create customized nutrition plans for my
clients because no matter how many swings you do, you
simply cannot out-train your food intake. If you’re not
fueling your body with the right foods or, if your goal is
weight loss, if you’re not eating fewer calories, you
cannot create the body you want. There’s no way
around this fact, but there is a way to eat that will ensure
the momentum you create with your swings will continue
right on into the kitchen.
The Uncommon Common-Sense Diet
The Swing Diet is the essential companion to your
kettlebell swings. I’ve created it to give your body the
support it needs to shed fat and develop muscle tone as
you complete your workouts. To ensure the diet is fully
ingrained into your life, I’m going to teach you skills that
will help you get into the rhythm of preparing your own
foods, helping you to take true ownership of your
transformation.
The eating plan in this book is all about smart and
simple diet strategies; it’s not complicated or
expensive, and it doesn’t require you to buy any
specialized supplements. I like to think of it as the
Uncommon Common Sense Diet because it’s based
on what we all know but choose to forget.
When I started designing the diet for myself, I knew
three things for sure: 1) I had to make and prepare all of
my own foods—no more eating out; 2) I needed to feel
completely satisfied, because I still had the mind-set of
an overeater; and 3) I needed flavor! No flavorless or
bland foods allowed. Essentially, I needed to be able to
eat a lot of food that tasted good and could be made at
home. These may seem like obvious requirements, but
if you’ve ever tried “diet” foods you know that plentiful
and tasty are not commonly used descriptions. Staying
on a diet you don’t like won’t work, which is why in Part
Three I will teach you how to eat to change your body by
filling your plate with plenty of food and flavor.
There are millions of very frustrated people out there
who spend hours working out but don’t change their diet
and then wonder why their weight doesn’t budge—don’t
be one of them. Unless you change what you’re eating,
you will not change your body. For me, acknowledging
the significance of diet marked one of the biggest
turning points in my body transformation.
It’s Not a Weight Issue
Like most people, I used to think what I had most of my
life was a weight issue, but I realized finally that when it
really came down to it, what I had was a food—or eating
—issue. It’s a cause-and-effect relationship—my weight
was a problem, but what was creating the excess
weight was all the food I was eating that my body did not
need. It’s safe to say I was eating too many calories.
Here were a couple of my favorite lunches: three
McDonald’s cheeseburgers, six chocolate chip
cookies, and a large soda = 2,170 calories; or six Jack
in the Box tacos, an order of curly fries, and a large root
beer = 2,137 calories. The fast-food joints were about
fifteen minutes from my home, and all that food was
gone before my front tires hit my driveway. Sometimes I
even had time to stop at the gas station for a couple of
packs of Hostess Donuts (an additional 400 calories
per package). It’s no mystery why I was fat.
It’s also not shocking that the general population is
getting fatter and fatter—the average daily consumption
is nearly 4,000 calories, when it should be less than
2,000 for most women. If you are overweight, you are
consuming more calories than you need to fuel your
body properly for its daily functions. It’s science, but it’s
not rocket science.
It’s time to stop filling your body with foodstuff—
processed foods, snacks, junk foods—and to discover
what it feels like to eat whole-food-based meals that
give energy and life rather than take it away. I used to
be so disconnected from the purpose and the pleasure
of real food that I consumed thousands upon thousands
of empty calories each day for years. But why was I
compelled to eat so much? Because I could, just as we
all can. It felt like the ultimate luxury to eat whatever I
wanted, and I couldn’t stop myself from taking
advantage of the abundance and availability of food.
The truth is, it’s not a luxury when you take an honest
look at the effects overeating has on your body. All that
extra food you’re “treating” yourself with equals extra
weight, and that takes a serious toll on your body.
Unless you live under a rock, you know that being
overweight has been linked to a number of diseases.
What you may not know is that the extra weight also
does a number on your knee joints, with each pound
equaling about four pounds of pressure on your knees.
That means when I was 250, I made my body work so
much harder than it had to—adding close to 500
pounds of extra work to every move I made. Doesn’t
sound so luxurious now, does it?
Real luxury comes in the form of fueling your body with
rich, delicious foods that also happen to be healthful.
Fresh, whole foods fuel your cells and fill your body with
energizing oxygen. Creating a direct connection with
these types of foods—preparing them and cooking
them for yourself—is one of the vital keys to weight loss.
It doesn’t have to be difficult either; in Part Three of this
book, I’ll teach you smart strategies that will help you
quickly get into the rhythm of making your own meals.
Eating well can be a deeply satisfying and rewarding
experience, but it doesn’t have to become a full-time
job.
Weight Time
Rarely do I have a client come to me who can say
exactly what his or her weight is—and this is not by
accident. When I was overweight, I didn’t even own a
scale or a full-length mirror. Research shows that
there’s a significant difference between measured and
self-reported weight, especially among overweight
individuals. It’s time to put denial to rest and step on
the scale. This will be one of the most important steps
in establishing your starting point (for specifics on
tracking your weight loss, see The Five Steps to
Permanent Weight-Loss Transformation), but be sure
not to confuse your weight with your identity. Your
weight is a reflection of the amount of calories you eat,
period. In fact, as you begin, I want you to evaluate and
remind yourself of your personal strengths that have
nothing to do with weight. Getting back in touch with
these strengths will boost your confidence and will give
you a great foundation on which to build.
The Perfect Plan for Real Life
Sometimes it seems the workouts and diets featured in
books and magazines were created by people who
never tried to lose weight; I am not one of those people.
I’ve tried it all, which is why I have such confidence in the
program I’ve designed for you. After years of trying and
failing to change my body, I used the workouts and
eating plans featured in this book to lose 120 pounds
and to keep it off.
The swing worked for me because it’s the most
authentic and direct path to transformation—when you
swing the kettlebell and fuel your body with simple,
whole foods, it will feel like a revelation, like you’ve
finally discovered the most natural and true way to
create the body you’ve always wanted.
With a promise like that, I’m sure you’re eager to jump
right to the workouts and the diet, but I encourage you to
read the rest of Part One first. My own personal
evolution to the point where it finally clicked for me took
twenty years—from that process, I produced gems of
insight that I share with my personal clients, and now I’m
going to share them with you.
2 Reconnecting with Your Body
Being a formerly fat person, I know what
it feels like to see your body as an
other; some part of you from which
you’ve disconnected. When you are
disconnected from your body, your
thoughts and perceptions of your body
don’t match reality. If you’ve ever had a
moment when you looked in a mirror and
thought, “How is that possibly what my
body looks like?” you know what I’m
talking about.
Weight gain—as little as 10 pounds—happens when
you stop paying attention and start disconnecting from
your physical body. It can start innocently, say, over the
holidays or on a cruise, when you’ve given yourself a
break to stop thinking about what you’re eating or how
little you’re exercising. (Don’t even get me started on
how ridiculous this thinking is to begin with—we should
be taking a break from overeating, not the other way
around!)
Next thing you know, you’ve added 10 pounds. And
then, since you gained that 10 pounds, why not just let
yourself go a bit more? Tack on another 15. This weight
may take many years to accumulate, but let me tell you,
the timing doesn’t work in your favor. Pretty soon, you’re
over forty and your metabolism’s slowed down, your
muscle mass is dwindling, and you’re staring at a big
number that you want to cut off your weight. That’s
certainly where I ended up.
What happens when you get to that point is you begin to
exist in the space outside of your body—the space
where you can deny the physical and mental damage
you are causing yourself and instead swim in the false
and temporary pleasure of overeating. This space isn’t
all ice cream and candy bars, though—in fact, it’s filled
with thoughts and feelings of guilt and shame, feelings
so powerful that they take over, and you become your
thoughts, emotions, and doubts. When you exist so
much in this intangible kind of headspace, reconnecting
with your body can feel really uncomfortable, even a bit
painful.
When I say painful, I don’t mean just the physical pain of
muscle soreness (although there will be some of that
too), but the disappointment and frustration that comes
with acknowledging the undeniable fact that you have let
yourself get out of shape. Exercising brings you back
into your body, which, if you are overweight, is not a
comfortable place to find yourself.
The best way to deal with this transition is to stop
thinking and start doing—you are going to be amazed
at how quickly your pain turns into power. There’s no
time like right now to start to bridge the gap between
your mind and body, between your actions and your
expectations. And here’s why the kettlebell swing is the
absolute best exercise to lead this charge: there’s no
waiting around for the effects; you will feel your body
come to life the moment you start swinging.
When you begin with the swing, you will become
reacquainted with your body instantaneously. The
motion itself engages just about every muscle on your
body, from your triceps to your inner thighs to the many
muscle fibers that make up your core. This doesn’t even
count the cardiovascular challenge that will kick in within
seconds and spike your oxygen intake, invigorating your
cells and muscle tissues and improving blood
circulation.
The instant impact of the kettlebell swing is revitalizing,
but when you keep swinging, the rewards get even
greater. The first gift is a renewed connection to your
body, and soon to follow is the introduction to your new
body. You will begin to see signs of your new body in as
little as four twenty- to thirty-minute workouts—that
means real, visible changes that will start to show up in
the mirror in just a couple of hours. There is no other
type of exercise that can make this promise—not
running, weight lifting, hiking, aerobics, or anything else.
Walk, Don’t Run
If you aren’t ready to jump onto the fast track to results
with the swing workouts, you can begin with walking.
Before I started swinging the kettlebell, I walked—not
because I thought it would provoke the weight loss I
wanted but because it allowed me to get back in touch
with my body. Walking helps you remember what it
feels like just to put your body to work—it’s like a
mediator who will restart the conversation between
your mind and body.
Walking is also the best gauge for a basic level of
fitness for a person of any weight or age, and it’s a
much smarter beginning activity than running. I’ve
seen many people try running for weight loss, and two
things usually happen: 1) they get injured, and 2) they
don’t lose any weight. It takes a lot of training and
cardiovascular fitness to get to the point where running
is beneficial for you. Bottom line, you get in shape to
run, you don’t run to get in shape.
Walking works. It doesn’t matter how slow you have to
go—you can take the first step toward change right
now. You may not be on the fast track yet, but you are
on the track and just getting there can be the toughest
part of all.
The Body and Its Capacity for
Forgiveness
When you start swinging the kettlebell and reconnecting
with your body, you might experience your body holding
a grudge—getting sore, making life feel difficult for you
—but I have good news: no matter what shape you’re in
now, your body is ready to forgive you and reward you
for the changes you are about to make to your daily
habits. Despite all the workouts you’ve missed, the crap
you’ve eaten, and the pounds you’ve added, it is never
too late to create the body you’ve always dreamed of.
My story proves this.
I tried to lose weight countless times over the years—
and I spent plenty of years bouncing back and forth
between weights. I tried Jenny Craig and lost 20
pounds, and then regained them and about 20 more. I
took tae kwon do with my son and lost weight, and then
gained again.
This type of repeated weight gain and weight loss is
often referred to as yo-yo dieting, but it’s not a game. In
fact, it’s thought to contribute to heart problems and high
cholesterol, and it has shown to actually slow
metabolism, which makes it especially difficult to
maintain any weight loss.
Yet the most significant impact of yo-yo dieting is the
emotional roller coaster it creates. Gaining weight is
depressing; losing weight is invigorating—and no one
is happy when they are constantly bouncing back and
forth between these extreme emotions. It creates a kind
of double existence, and it keeps you from ever feeling
completely comfortable or happy.
Eventually you give up, talking yourself into accepting
the alternating weight loss and gain as a fact of life. Still,
over time, small weight gain becomes bigger gain,
which makes it more likely you’ll get stuck at the higher
number on the scale, instead of the lower. That’s what
happened to me—I started putting on 20 pounds a year
until I had gone from a size 14 to a size 24 in just five
years. By forty-one, I was 250 pounds, and it seemed
that’s where I was going to stay. If I had done nothing, I
would have kept gaining—350 pounds was right around
the corner.
By some miracle, no serious obesity-related health
issues caught up with me. I was certainly pre-diabetic,
but I never knew for sure though how bad off I was
health-wise because I avoided going to the doctor for
years. I was in such denial, I couldn’t bear to face the
truth.
I did start snoring very loudly, which was extremely
embarrassing, and I knew it was because of my weight.
I also took a devastating fall after a misplaced step on a
rock. The intense force of my weight as it smashed my
knees into the ground overwhelmed me, and I started
sobbing. The pain was severe, but I also remember the
shock and horror of feeling the huge load of my body hit
the ground.
Remarkably, my body recovered—from that fall and
from all the years of being ignored and neglected,
treated mostly just as a receptacle for useless, empty
calories. My swing workouts and new eating habits
picked me up off the ground and transformed me into a
person unrecognizable from the one I was before.
Instead of dragging though each day, I started feeling
excited to be in my body; I felt energized and
enthusiastic about life. Instead of feeling completely
disconnected from the me I saw in the mirror, I started
falling in love with my body, and it started loving me
back, giving me the invaluable gift of health.
What’s Your Wake-Up Call?
You don’t have to be nearly as heavy as I was to
experience something that triggers you to want to
change your habits. Research shows most people
finally change their health habits because of
something medical—often either a doctor telling them
to lose weight or a family member having a heart
attack. The next most common triggering events have
been reported as “reaching an all-time high in weight”
or “seeing a picture or reflection.” I think the last one is
certainly something just about everyone can relate to!
So you have a choice: you can either wait for one of
these messages to come along, or you can accept the
chance I’m giving you in The Swing! to create
momentum and results in just a few short weeks.
You’ve got nothing to lose but weight.
In the end, what I discovered is that our bodies are not
indestructible, but they are repairable and recoverable.
This is true regardless of your current shape. Whether
you’re a few years out of college, post-baby, entering
menopause, fighting middle-aged weight gain, facing a
weight loss of more than 100 pounds, or you’ve simply
grown tired of that stubborn 20 pounds, the swing will
propel you toward your desired body transformation.
The first step for everyone is the same—to swing the
kettlebell, thereby starting the conversation with your
body. Maybe say a thank-you to your body for enduring
your past indulgences, and then make a commitment
moving forward to reward it with the gift of good health.
3 Get Over It!
I always knew I could lose weight, I just
didn’t know when. As my thirties flew by
and I turned forty, I started to wonder if
“when” was ever going to arrive. Maybe
I was just going to be fat for the rest of
my life. I didn’t know anyone who had
lost a tremendous amount of weight,
kept it off, and looked better than ever,
regardless of his or her age. I began to
believe permanent weight loss wasn’t
possible.
That all changed when I discovered the kettlebell. My
entire life—my notions of what was possible with my
body and my self-confidence, my understanding of the
ceiling of my capabilities, my definition of life change—
all of it was rewritten completely when I picked up a
kettlebell and started doing the kettlebell swing. I didn’t
just lose weight, but I also discovered my true self along
the way.
Everyone has a definition of his or her true self—it’s
usually the best version of ourselves; the one we wish
will show up on the most important days of our lives.
What the kettlebell swing helped me realize is that the
best you doesn’t have to be a guest star; you can be
who you’ve always wanted to be every day—there’s no
reason to keep all that greatness locked up inside!
The Inside Truth
Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve envied athletes. I’ve
always admired their sense of purpose and the control
they have over their bodies. When I would envision my
dream body, I would see myself fit, athletic, and
shapely; I never wanted to be just skinny. I also saw in
athletes a reflection of my true self—the self that was
driven, capable, and strong, filled with a competitive
spirit that could persevere through challenges and
always stay the course.
It took me years to bring the athlete inside of me to life,
but once I did, the reality matched my dreams (and
even exceeded them). Identifying and knowing the
characteristics of your true self can be an important
step in helping the real you break through. Can you
identify the qualities of your best potential self? Start to
construct the physical and mental profile of who you
want to be; the more solid this vision becomes, the
more likely you are to make it manifest.
Fortunately, you’re the one who holds the key to
unlocking your own lasting transformation. To make it
happen, you’ve first got to get out of the pit of unrealized
potential—the slick and oily collection of all the excuses
you’ve used to keep yourself from making progress until
now. The pit is covered in thoughts like this:
I’m too old.
I’m too fat.
I have a thyroid problem.
I have a slow metabolism.
I’ve had children (it ruined my body).
I have children (they consume my life).
I work full time.
I’m so tired.
It’s Monday.
It’s Friday.
I have to go shopping.
I know you’ve convinced yourself that it’s okay to stay
trapped in excuses like these. You’ve probably also had
people in your life validate them, but I’ve got news for
you: I’m not one of those people. The truth is, you are
limiting yourself in unimaginable ways if you continue to
settle for a life filled with excuses. Breaking free from all
these unproductive, wasteful, fallback positions all starts
with one statement: I am in control.
The Power of Control
When you claim control of your life and the daily choices
you make, you silence excuses and blame, and you
ensure that you’ll never play victim to anything ever
again. If you’ve ever pointed a finger at something or
someone else and blamed him, her, or it for the current
state of your body, then you have given up control.
Worse, you happen to be in the comfortable company of
many.
Real vs. Fake
When I was heavy, I used to make an effort to control
perceptions of myself. I wasn’t about to let people
perceive me as fat and foolish, so I practically bragged
about taking responsibility for my weight. At the fullservice salon where I worked, I was the first one to go
get fast food for myself and everyone else, and I
openly helped myself to the Saturday morning tray of
donuts. I would boast about eating the most fattening
ice creams, the most fattening foods, and how if I was
going to be fat, I might as well thoroughly enjoy all the
junk foods I could get my hands on. In reality, I felt like
a bottomless pit; my control was nonexistent, and the
act was pointless because it only perpetuated my own
weight gain. It was only when I was finally honest with
myself that I was ready to take authentic control of my
life—I wasn’t proud of being fat, so why was I
pretending to be?
Take a personal inventory of the efforts you make to
seem like something you’re not. Plenty of people,
especially women, will take on this attitude of having
fat pride—but I know it’s a lie. Being overweight not
only places limits on your life, it puts your health on
the line, which is nothing to brag about. Real control is
about taking ownership of your health and body, and
making sure your actions are those that will bring to
life your true desires.
The act of blaming something other than ourselves for
what goes wrong is casually encouraged in our culture,
so much so that we often don’t even bother to consider
another explanation for our predicament. Even most of
the weight-loss books out there will play into your desire
to find a scapegoat … it’s carbs; it’s fat; you’re not
doing enough cardio; you’re not eating enough whole
grains; you’re eating the wrong foods for your body
type. No one seems to want to say the one true thing,
which is that it’s your fault. You are responsible for the
shape you’re in. You are eating more calories than your
body needs, and your body is storing them as fat. It
wasn’t until I accepted this fact that I was able to create
a profound change in my life.
If there is one influence that will keep you from losing
that first pound, it is continuing to blame your weight on
anyone or anything other than yourself. Then, of course,
for every excuse out there, there is a person who has
beaten it. Ultimately, your body will not change until you
change your habits and behavior. I’ve created a few
rules that will help you set these changes in motion.
Regaining Control with Rules
You put yourself in control of your health by taking two
important steps: First, you recognize that you have the
power to choose what you put in your mouth. Second,
acknowledge that you have the ability to determine how
much you exercise and to devise a program to attain
your goals. This is a no-brainer, but it brings us back to
the golden rule of change, which is that to create
change, you must first accept control.
Beyond that, there are a few other solid rules that I
discovered on the path to body transformation. These
are rooted in science and are as inevitable as sunrise
each day. As my husband, Mark, likes to say, “I don’t
make the rules; I just know ’em.” I love this phrase
because it reminds me that there are some undeniable
truths when it comes to how your body works—knowing
these will take a lot of guesswork out of the equation
and will boost confidence in your control. I’ll go into
these in more detail in later chapters, but here are the
most basic rules about body transformation:
Forget everything else you’ve been told; it’s all about
calories. Make no mistake; it’s pure science. If you eat
fewer calories than you burn on any given day, you will lose
weight.
Guessing doesn’t cut it. You must educate yourself by
tracking your calories, not because you’re monitoring
restriction, but because you’re tracking progress.
Everyone underestimates the amount of food he or she
eats each day. In fact, studies have shown that people can
underestimate their calorie consumption up to 42 percent
—that’s like eating 3,000 calories but thinking you’ve eaten
a little over 1,700 calories. You will never lose weight
unless you have a clear picture of what you’re eating.
The kettlebell swing is the most effective method for
rapid weight loss. A study conducted by the American
Council on Exercise revealed that a kettlebell workout
burns up to 20.2 calories per minute. To achieve this kind
of caloric burn in any other activity, you would have to be an
extreme athlete. It’s the equivalent of running a six-minute
mile, which is almost impossible for the average adult, but
everyone can swing a kettlebell!
These are indisputable rules—there’s no gray area or
room for discussion. When you accept these rules, you
will empower yourself with basic body truths. Use them
as general guidelines and come back to them often,
especially if you ever feel your commitment to change
grow shaky. The rules won’t change, which means they’ll
never fail to keep you—or get you back—on track.
How Small, Smart Changes
Can Lead to Big Results
Let’s say you’ve set your excuses aside and kicked the
blame game to the curb. What’s the next step?
Personally, I wasn’t planning for perfection from the getgo, but instead for what was possible for me to achieve,
one step at a time. I lost the first 50 pounds by changing
my diet. I knew that at some point I would have to add
weight-resistance training, but I needed to focus on one
change at a time. I wasn’t aiming to accomplish
amazing results quickly, but I soon realized that it was
possible.
I started slowly with the kettlebell swing, doing just five to
ten minutes twice a week, but the confidence I gained
from just being able to do that much helped build my
motivation. With motivation came commitment to my
workouts, which led to continued results. Each action or
change I made built upon the one that had come before
it—it was a chain reaction that, once set in motion,
couldn’t be stopped. And it continues today as I
complete my kettlebell workouts and prep and cook my
meals each week—it’s all part of who I am now.
To set yourself on the same track, there are very basic
steps to follow: make changes, aim for results, and build
on the motivation from meeting your goals. When in
doubt about your diet, always return to calories and your
honest account of what foods you’re putting in your body
—this is the most reliable way to monitor your progress.
And with exercise, just follow this simple rule my
husband taught me: swing the kettlebell until you break
a sweat and then stop. (It’s a trick of course; because
once you break a sweat all you’ll want to do is keep
going.)
When it comes to changing our habits, we all feel as if
we have mighty demons to face and huge obstacles to
overcome in order to make commitments stick, but let’s
not waste more time looking for excuses. You deserve
to be great, and it’s time for you to accept that you can
be. Embrace control by taking personal responsibility
for the choices you make and by filtering those choices
through the rules of body transformation. Do this and I
guarantee you will create the changes you want to see
in your body and your life.
4 The Right Mind-Set
A big mistake many people make is that
when they start a diet and exercise
program, they fail to see it as a
permanent lifestyle change. That was a
mistake I made for years—all the diet
and exercise methods I tried were just
temporary fixes that never really
became a part of my regular life. They
came and went like passing trends tend
to do, and my weight responded in kind,
fluctuating and then flatlining at fat.
Then I started paying more attention to my husband’s
habits (I had made subconscious observations over the
years, but they had never crossed over into my own
habits). He was and still is the perpetual athlete,
methodical about his diet and training regimens without
fail. His body responded, too, by getting stronger and
leaner, and barely ever varying in weight over the
twenty-plus years I’ve known him. I couldn’t even fathom
having such power over my body.
What I realized is that he had a wildly different mind-set
from my own—I had the average mind-set, and he had
the athlete’s mind-set. If the average mind-set operates
from the kind of inconsistency that creates yo-yo dieting,
the athlete’s mind-set thrives on the opposite:
consistency. It’s not about exercising or eating well
every once in a while, but about making those practices
part of your everyday life. Athletes know this
instinctively, but for most people it doesn’t come
naturally. The incredible lesson I learned is that you
don’t have to be an athlete to think like one—in fact,
anyone and everyone can take cues from an athlete’s
way of thinking to help create and keep the body you’ve
always wanted.
It all comes down to getting into the Readiness Zone.
The Readiness Zone
Athletes connect everything they do to the body—they
have an image and an idea of the shape they’d like to
be in, and they eat and exercise accordingly to bring
this image to life. Their regimens are designed to
maximize performance and to make sure they’re always
within a certain zone of fitness, what I like to call the
Readiness Zone. When they’re in this zone, they’re
physically strong and prepared, always ready to train
and within reach of their top form. They’ve developed
habits that keep them in this zone, but it’s not about the
specifics of their habits as much as it is about the
consistency of them. For them, there’s no turning off or
letting go.
For most other people, it’s a constant back-and-forth
between letting go and then reining back in, which
means following a pattern that looks a lot like this:
Eat whatever you want, exercise as little as possible, feel
dissatisfied with your body, and resolve to do something
about it someday.
Someday comes—your clothes get too tight, you have a
wedding to go to, you want to comfortably wear a bathing
suit, or you’ve found that dream pair of jeans you’re just
dying to fit into.
You throw yourself into some sort of rapid weight-loss plan,
which usually involves something drastic or unhealthful, but
you lose weight and feel great.
You attend the event, you fit into the jeans, and you are
sexy and confident. You think, “I am never going to gain
weight again.”
You stop following XYZ plan because it was too restrictive
and unrealistic—it just didn’t fit into your life—and the
pounds sneak back on.
Repeat.
When you follow this type of pattern, you spend most of
the time existing outside of the Readiness Zone—you
are almost always tens of pounds away from being
ready or prepared for whatever comes your way.
Instead of feeling confident and excited for an event or
the beach or even a shopping trip with your friends,
there’s a sense of dread and embarrassment, or a
memory of how much work it’s going to take to get back
into the zone again. When you live your life in this
space, spontaneity dies and limits live large.
There were plenty of times when my weight held me
back, mentally and physically. Just being on my feet with
all that extra body weight made activities like walking
around an amusement park or even the mall painful.
That doesn’t even count the “pain” of actually shopping
—trying on clothing in front of a mirror never failed to
feel like torture. I couldn’t wear heels; the pressure of my
own body weight made them too painful to bear.
Then, there were the places I wouldn’t even go because
of my body—forget the beach; I didn’t own a pair of
shorts or a bathing suit. Once, when someone gave
Mark and me a trip to Hawaii, I had to go—and I was
miserable the entire time! On a free trip to Hawaii, I
couldn’t even enjoy myself because I was so
embarrassed by how I looked. I also used to try to avoid
people when I was at my heaviest—I’d stay away from
the house when I knew old friends would visit, or I’d slip
down a different aisle at the grocery store if I saw
someone I knew. When I think about it now, I can’t
believe I placed such limits and restrictions on my life,
or that I lived with so much shame.
Consider the limits you’ve placed on your own life by not
being in the body you want, one that’s not as fit, strong,
or lean as you’d like it to be. You may not even be
aware of some of the simplest things that you are
missing out on or the negativity you perpetuate as a
result of your weight. Are there events or gatherings
you’ve skipped out on because you don’t want people
to see the weight you’ve gained? Have you opted not to
get out on the dance floor because you can’t stand the
thought of people staring at your body? Have you
rushed to get out of a picture so you wouldn’t have to
see your arms, thighs, or belly immortalized in an
image? Individually, these may seem like small
sacrifices, but joined together, they create a powerful
anti-life force—they’re pulling you out of and away from
your fullest potential.
Now imagine yourself instead always ready and up for
anything. See yourself perpetually in the Readiness
Zone. Imagine feeling confident and excited each day,
ready to take on and accept any opportunity that comes
your way. What doors do you want your capable and
strong body to open for you? See yourself going on a
hike with your friends or taking a challenging walk
without telling others to go on without you. Or envision
yourself trying something exciting while on vacation, like
surfing or zip-lining, or training for a 5k because you
want to run one with your kids. Imagine your life free of
the pattern of self-defeat created by yo-yo dieting.
That’s where I am now: forever in the zone and ready to
take on any adventure, the spectacular and the small. I
have a renewed joy for life and an enthusiasm for being
an active participant in each day. I love seeing friends,
including people I haven’t seen in years; I go out
dancing—in heels; I try on clothes in department stores,
and I get compliments on how fit I look. I have grown to
love yoga and have even gotten good at it, which is
something I could never do when I was heavy. I can lead
kettlebell swing classes and out-swing people half my
age and even former Marines. My body is now the
reason I can do what I want, not the reason I can’t—and I
want it to be this way for you too.
Not only is this life possible, it’s easily attainable when
you make the kettlebell swing and eating right part of
how you live your life. Your first step in creating your own
Readiness Zone is to decide to make the choices every
day that support being your best at all times. At the core
of how athletes live their life is the simple-sounding
mantra: be consistent. I want you to adapt and imprint
this phrase into your brain like a permanent tattoo. The
moment you start drifting from consistency is the
moment you start slipping from the Readiness Zone—
tether yourself to your new habits until they become part
of who you are. Be routine with your workouts and follow
the eating plan daily, and you simply will not fail.
Creating Consistency
A woman once asked me how often I trained for yoga.
When I told her that I had established a daily practice,
she responded with amazement and was baffled by the
thought of the “discipline” (her word) required to
maintain that kind of commitment. So I asked her how
many days she went to work. She replied: “Every day—
Monday through Friday!” When I asked her if it took
discipline to do that, she said that it didn’t feel like
discipline, it’s just what she does; it’s her job, and she
likes her job. Exactly. Making my own foods, swinging a
kettlebell, going to yoga is what I do; it’s part of who I
am. These are what make me feel fully alive every day.
Here are some tips on how to get onto the train of
consistency—and stay there:
Accept the luxury of no choice. Well, you do have a
choice—you can opt to get fatter, weaker, and sicker. Let
me be the first to tell you that, especially as you get older,
those are your choices—you can either pursue the high
road to health, or you can decline into a constant,
worsening battle against your own body. This is why I like
to consider it a no-choice scenario.
Eat the same foods at least four days out of seven. I
eat five days of the same basic meals, and then day six is
my high-calorie day and day seven is my lower-calorie day.
When you eat the same basic meals every day, you
remove the stress that comes with choosing what foods to
eat. Plus, you’re able to keep more accurate calorie
counts, and you become fast and efficient at preparing the
same basic foods. Even if you fall off track, you won’t fall
far because you already have a plan for the next day.
Be selfish. Have you ever been on an airplane and paid
attention to the flight attendants when they are giving the
safety instructions? They say something like, “If you are
with a small child and the oxygen mask is released, secure
your own oxygen mask first, and then give one to the child.”
To me, that means you’ll be of no help to anyone if you die.
When I was ready to change my life, I applied this strategy
to my health habits. I scheduled fitness appointments with
myself like they were doctor’s appointments with
outrageous cancellation fees.
It works—try it. Mark your calendar with the days and
times of your workouts and walks, and also note when
you’re going to go shopping for foods and when you’re
going to cook them. Then, stick to this rule: nothing
comes before me. Make it a priority at all costs. Wake
up an hour earlier (I find this to be the easier option) or
go to bed an hour later. Get rid of the riffraff in your life
that doesn’t support these changes.
The reality is that you have to put your health and fitness
first. Establish the habits, and the body will follow,
leading you right into the Readiness Zone, where limits
don’t exist. A nutritiously fed body that swings a
kettlebell at least forty minutes a week will be one that
achieves, at the very minimum, a healthy body weight.
Then of course there’s the swagger, the sexiness, the
confidence and capability, and the complete and
profound satisfaction with your body (the one you want
more than anyone else’s) that will come along too.
5 The Entry Point
I’m often asked what “it” was for me, the
moment that I decided to lose the weight
after so many years of going back and
forth between trying and giving up. It
was a sort of perfect storm of events
that finally pushed me into change. My
body spoke up first, then my mind,
followed by a fateful triggering of my
competitive side. The specifics of my
evolution were unique, but the process
left me with invaluable insight into the
makeup of a transformation. In this
chapter, I’m going give you the steps to
create your very own breakthrough, but
first I’m going to share a little about my
own story.
A Brewing Fear
When you’re more than 100 pounds overweight, your
body can only go on functioning in a normal way for so
long. After I had been 250 pounds for nearly ten years, I
began to sense that it was about to catch up with me—
and I was right. I started having digestive issues (I won’t
go into details, but I will tell you it wasn’t pretty). I knew
my body was finally speaking up in a way that I couldn’t
ignore. Each day for months, I felt I was dodging a
bullet, but I was too scared and embarrassed to go to
the doctor, so I began to self-diagnose and watch
medical shows for clues.
Watching these shows only worsened my fears—I saw
a story about an obese woman who died from a blood
clot due to an enlarged heart. I already knew heart
disease was the number-one killer of women. I was
convinced my heart was swimming in fat, and I was
scared that I couldn’t undo the damage I had caused to
my body; I was terrified I was walking the same path as
the woman on TV. I knew the time had come when I had
no choice but to lose weight, but my past attempts had
led me to failure and left me in my current state. I was
searching for the way into an overhaul of my life—and
that’s when the contest came along.
An Unexpected Opportunity
In the early days of January 2005, six of my co-workers
decided to take on a weight-loss challenge. They were
going to wager $100 per person, and whoever lost the
biggest percentage of body weight would be the winner
and take home the pot of collected money. I heard the
conversation, but I wasn’t asked to join in. I’m sure they
assumed I wasn’t interested in losing weight since I
constantly bragged about eating whatever I wanted.
What they didn’t know was that I was primed and
searching for a jump-start to change and that I was a
true competitor at heart. (I was a diehard Survivor fan
and wanted so badly to compete on that show, but my
extreme body weight would have made it impossible.) I
jumped up from my seat and asked my co-workers to
include me—they were shocked but more than happy to
take my money and fatten the pot. I’m certain no one
expected me to win—except me. I knew without a doubt
I was going to win. I knew that I was a fireball fueled by
decades of frustration with my weight—and that I was
about to direct all that focus into changing my body. It
was like someone had reached into the competitive
switch in my brain and flipped it on—and it hasn’t gone
off since.
Three months later and $700 richer (I won the bet), I was
a completely changed woman. I was making and
preparing all my own foods, walking every day, and
enjoying a wonderful, new, healthier life—and I knew I
was only at the tip of the iceberg. I had lost 50 pounds
already. It all started when I made the initial commitment
to the weight-loss challenge, but there were critical,
tangible steps that solidified my promise to myself to
never, ever go back. If you follow these steps as I’ve
outlined them here, you will have laid the foundation for
your very own permanent transformation.
The Five Steps to Permanent
Weight-Loss Transformation
Take “before” data. Until I stepped on the scale to get
my starting weight for the weight-loss challenge, I had
only an approximation of my actual weight. The last time
I had weighed myself was when I was thirty-one and
weighed 210 pounds—it had been ten years! I didn’t
own a scale or even a full-length mirror, but I knew I was
heavier than ever before. I had worn a size 18 when I
was 210 pounds, and I was now up to size 24. I
estimated that being three sizes up made me 40–60
pounds heavier. I told myself I didn’t need a scale
because I knew I was at my heaviest.
When I finally stepped on the scale, I was surprised at
the relief I felt—first when I realized it read 250 and not
350, as I’d originally misread, and second, because
identifying my starting point gave me the power to begin
moving forward. Knowing this number also freed up my
mental focus; instead of guessing and wondering where
my weight was, I now had a clear marker of where I
stood.
At my heaviest, I did everything I could to avoid being in
pictures, but looking back now at the pictures I do have
is rewarding and validating. It reminds me of how far I’ve
come—it’s something I’m extremely proud of. To this
day, I’m still finding random photos from that time that
I’ve stashed away, and they never fail to reinforce my
motivation.
It’s Your Turn: Take the first empowering step by
getting on the scale and documenting your starting
weight. Make the promise to never see that number
again. Then, snap a before photo, or find a recent
picture that captures the current shape of your body.
File this image away as just a bit of historical data—
don’t hang it around your neck or torture yourself with
self-loathing. If you want, take a new picture every week
or two, but don’t feel the need to analyze it or use it to
make judgments, positive or negative. Always reflect
and act from a place of pride about who you are today
and who you’ll become in the future.
Define “how.” In my case, the “how” started with
getting into the rhythm of preparing my own meals and
taking a daily walk. I drastically altered my relationship
with food, eating only meals that I made for myself,
which empowered me with the ability to control the
number of calories I was eating.
For exercise, I knew that, at my weight, the first thing I
had to do was walk (this was before I knew about
kettlebells). The day after I weighed in for the contest, I
woke up at six A.M. and drove over to a local trail that
had a two-mile loop. Every day—and I mean every
single day—I walked that two-mile trail, and one day a
week I looped around twice, making the total distance
four miles. It wasn’t easy—my lower back was killing
me, but I pushed through because I had a greater
purpose: to renew my life.
I walked almost daily for years, even after I started
training with kettlebells. I wasn’t walking to burn calories,
but to continue to strengthen my connection with the
power and confidence of my physical body. I think this is
something a lot of us, especially women, lose touch with
—we forget how capable and strong our bodies are and
how invigorated and dynamic they can, and want, to be.
It wasn’t until I picked up the kettlebell that I began to
see the real potential begin to show in my body. If
walking was the spark, the swing was the fire. Just a
few weeks after I started swinging the kettlebell in my
garage, the muscles on my body began to show tone—
my beautiful shape and strength was building up from
the inside out.
I was so inspired by my rapid results, I emerged from
my garage a kettlebell evangelist—I started taking my
kettlebell to the park or the track, where I’d warm up with
a walk and then get into my swings. I would show off a
little to people who had never seen a kettlebell, much
less knew what to do with one. I would take my kettlebell
inside the house and swing in the kitchen between
washing dishes and basting a turkey. The swing
became a part of my life—not something separate from
it—unlike other exercises I had tried in the past. I
couldn’t come up with a valid excuse not to do it. My
workouts provided visible results fast by burning fat and
building muscle, never took me more than thirty minutes,
made me feel strong and powerful, and helped me
realize that my body really was made to move. It was a
revelation.
It’s Your Turn: Order your kettlebell, and while you wait
for it to arrive, start walking. Walk today for ten minutes.
Then do it again tomorrow for twenty minutes, and work
toward being able to walk one to two miles, four to five
times a week. Walking outside is best, but if all you can
get to is a treadmill, jump on it.
When you get your kettlebell, see Learning the Kettlebell
Swing to learn how to swing and begin your workouts.
The swing will help you build strength and endurance,
improve flexibility, and promote rapid weight loss. Pick
up the bell and start swinging, and swing at least twice a
week for twenty to thirty minutes, and you will makeover
your body in a way you never thought possible.
Your first step with food is to take an honest look at what
you’re eating each day—what are the triggers that drive
you to overeat? It may not be about eating an excess of
junk food, like it was for me. It could be stress eating,
snacking, or meal skipping (which creates binge
eating), or a combination of all of these habits. To step
away from any behaviors that drive unconscious eating,
get grounded by working on your cooking skills. Don’t
worry if you aren’t too familiar with your kitchen—when I
changed my diet and starting cooking for myself, I had
never roasted a chicken, grilled a steak, or made a pot
of soup, so I know exactly where you might be coming
from. If you want to make a great investment in your
health, look for a local cooking class to take, which is
what I did in the beginning. Also be sure to check out
Part Three, where you’ll find a full breakdown of the
Swing Diet, along with basic tips and recipes that will
help make eating right easy.
Establish your “why.” On the very first day I started
walking, I knew I was saving my life. That’s how deeply I
knew that what I was doing was right. Out there in the
fresh air, I began reconnecting with my physical body,
and I started an inner dialogue to help create a stronger
connection. Since I was convinced my heart was in
terrible shape, I focused my attention there, and with
each step I imagined the grateful comments my heart
would be saying to me if it had a voice: “Thank you for
melting this fat away from me”; “Thank you for not
making me work so hard”; “I feel better and stronger
every day”; “We’re going to do this.” As silly as it
sounds, it helped me bring together my mind and body. I
finally felt like every part of me had come together to
achieve the goal of creating a new life.
Not all my reasons for transforming my body were so
thoughtful or deep—I wanted to remove the fat from my
body because of the physical burden it was causing, but
I also wanted it gone so I could finally look great and feel
sexy and confident. I wanted it all, and I knew I was
finally going to get it.
It’s Your Turn: Let’s bring your motivation to life by
describing it. Figure out what lights that fire for you, and
own it. This commitment to change is all about you—
don’t look to others to define your motivation or to
“borrow” a reason, because it won’t last. So the
question is: what do you want? Maybe you want to heal
your body from the inside out and give yourself the gift
of health. Or you want to feel attractive and confident, to
be able to try on clothes and feel great in them. Or you
want to stop feeling depressed every time you catch a
glimpse of yourself in the mirror or in a picture. Perhaps
you want to get good at something, to create a skill that
helps build your confidence in your abilities. I know
learning how to swing and teaching myself how to cook
were ground-level motivators for me, but they weren’t
the primary “why” that created the takeoff—for you, they
might be just that. Motivation can come in many forms—
find your why and take ownership of it.
Take the confidence challenge. There was a time
when I would have believed that someone saw the
Easter Bunny walking down the street before I believed
that permanent weight loss was possible. But now here I
sit with six years of maintenance under my belt—and
not only can I say it’s possible, I can say it’s not that
hard. When I started eating fewer calories and swinging
the kettlebell, I started losing weight, and I continued to
lose it until I created the body I wanted. Now I work to
keep that body and to get stronger, not weaker, as I
age.
All those years I wrestled back and forth with my weight,
permanent weight loss was possible—I just didn’t
believe it was. I didn’t have the confidence in my ability
to make lasting changes. It was only when I
acknowledged my own strength and ability to commit
that I was able to change my life.
It’s Your Turn: First off, remove the cloud of doubt or
depression that’s settled in over the topic of your weight
—stop the doubts that start creeping in as soon as you
start to consider changing your diet and exercise habits.
There’s nothing bad about making changes to improve
your life—shift your perspective to see your
commitments to swing your kettlebell and to eat right as
gifts to yourself, because that’s what they really are. I’m
not smarter or luckier or more capable than anyone
else, but I created permanent weight loss first by
accepting that it was possible and believing it was not a
myth. Permanent weight loss starts with the first pound,
and if you can lose 1 pound then you can lose 100—the
formula doesn’t change, so stick with it and you will
create the body you’ve always wanted.
Track your progress. The best thing about my weight
loss was that it happened quickly. I started walking and
preparing my own foods in January 2005, and four
weeks later, I had lost 20 pounds. Then I lost 5 pounds a
week for four straight weeks. After that, I lost 3 to 4
pounds a week, and in three months time, I had lost 50
total pounds, going from 250 to 200 pounds. In the next
two months, I lost an additional 25 pounds at a rate of
about 2 pounds a week, reaching a total of 75 pounds
lost by the six-month anniversary of my starting date. By
the end of November, I was 142 pounds—down 33
more. From November to April, I fine-tuned my body
weight to 132 (another 10 pounds lost). Overall, I had
lost 118 pounds in sixteen months. And through that
entire period, I never hit a plateau—never! Every week I
lost some amount of body weight.
I only weighed myself once a week until I got to my
original goal weight of 142. At that point I knew that if I
kept doing what I had been doing, it wouldn’t be difficult
to get to 132—10 more pounds after losing more than
100 pounds seemed like a drop in the bucket.
It’s Your Turn: If you follow through on your commitment
to consistency and you stay honest with yourself, you
can expect results instead of just hoping for them. An
important part of staying honest is tracking your
progress, which includes writing down the foods you eat
each day and monitoring your weight each week. I
recommend only weighing yourself once a week until
you get within striking distance of your goal weight.
There are too many variables to take into consideration
on a daily basis, but they even out over the course of a
week. What I’ve learned from my husband, Mark, is the
importance of a “trendline”—the path your progress
would follow, typically up or down, if it were drawn on a
chart. Whether it’s your body weight or your training (are
you getting stronger, leaner, more fit, and so on),
moving in the right direction should be your focus.
Your Goals Await
I know you have a dream weight in your head, and I’ve
got a surprise for you—it’s going to change! Your initial
goal should be one that you can honestly strive for with
everything in you, and let the momentum carry you
forward from there. I discovered that once I created
momentum it was easy to keep losing. Establish a
timeline for your initial goal and then when, not if, you
hit it, create your next goal (based on the success of
meeting the first). As you begin to see your body’s true
potential, don’t be afraid to let your ultimate goal
evolve—be prepared to push through what you
thought were your limits and redefine what it means to
be your best.
For your workouts, be sure to use the workout journals
(see Appendix B), especially in the beginning as you
focus on achieving an equal work-to-rest ratio—when
your rest and workout times are the same. As your
swing skills improve and you advance to the more
complex workouts, use the logs to track your progress
and to increase in reps. This way you’ll know what
number of reps created the best workout for you before
and you’ll be able to push yourself further next time.
You’ll create amazing progress when you ensure that
each time you work out, you up the challenge just
enough to push your body into the next level.
When you follow these five steps, you will be following in
the footsteps of my own path to permanent weight loss.
This path is based on proven methods for rapid body
transformation: swinging a kettlebell at least twice a
week and lowering your calories. It is impossible to
completely change your eating and exercise habits and
not lose weight. Do the work, make the changes, and
the body will follow because it has to—you are in
charge, so lead the way. The sooner you start creating
these habits, the better—research has shown that
maintaining weight loss actually gets easier over time.
And I’ll tell you it’s the truth!
In This Together
I am still (and will forever be) on the path alongside you
as you make a commitment to transform your body. I
know what I’m capable of, and therefore I know what you
are capable of. I’ll always push to take myself further
and to create continued progress in my life and my body
—especially now that I know the possibilities. When you
start swinging your kettlebell in your living room, I am in
my garage training my butt off. When you are chopping
cabbage for your salads, making tomato and vegetable
soup, and packing your lunch, I am in my kitchen doing
the same. You are not alone on this journey.
Now get ready to learn how to swing!
PART TWO
Body
6 Get the Body You Want in Less Time
In the twenty-five-plus years that the
American Council on Exercise (ACE)
has been around, it’s seen plenty of
fitness trends and has offered reviews
of thousands of products, from the ones
that seem like gag gifts to the genuine
exercise tools. When the kettlebell
started popping up on ACE’s radar in
2005, thanks to the increase in use by
personal trainers across the country,
the calorie burn and workout efficiency
claims were so outrageous, they had to
invest in a study to see if they were
true. Could people really do a complete
workout in just twenty minutes? Could
they really burn almost 300 calories in
that time? Could they replace weights
and cardio with just this one tool?
So they put some top science folks from the University
of Wisconsin on the case. After conducting a research
study, the researchers came back to ACE with
answers. Here’s a recap of what they said, in
nonscientific terms: yes, yes, and yes. Or as Chad
Schnettler, one of the researchers, put it: “For people
who might not have a lot of time, and need to get in a
workout as quickly as possible, kettlebells definitely
provide that.”
The Kettlebell Makes an Entrance
When I was first introduced to the kettlebell, I was
skeptical—from what I could tell, it seemed just like any
other type of dumbbell, and I had tried lifting weights in
my twenties and never seen the results I wanted. But my
husband, Mark, had fallen in love with the kettlebell and,
like a kid with a new toy, kept encouraging me to try it.
Mark had trained his body obsessively for decades with
every type of weight and training method imaginable,
but by 2003 the kettlebell had become the only tool
used in his personal workouts—what was so special
about this little, solid, single ball of cast iron?
Mark demonstrated how to do the swing, and I tried it—
the motion felt natural and relatively easy, but I wasn’t
sold yet. All I found truly attractive about this new way of
exercise was that I could do it in my garage, which
meant I didn’t have to set foot in a gym. Even though I
had lost 50 pounds from changing my diet and walking, I
was still heavy and didn’t want to watch myself exercise
in front of a mirror, let alone where other people watch
me. Plus, the kettlebell was a form of weight-resistance
exercise, which I knew I had to do to create muscle and
tone; if I had any chance of looking good after losing the
weight, I had to give my body some shape underneath
all the fat.
My workouts started small—just a few sets of 10 reps
with rest between each set. I wasn’t working toward
anything at first; I just wanted to get each workout over
with. Within a couple weeks, I had worked up to 20 sets
of 10 reps each. Then I taught myself the One-Hand
Swing because I needed some variety. With the OneHand Swing added to my repertoire, I started to focus
more on workout patterns, rather than just total number
of swings. It became a kind of game for me to piece
workouts together—10 Two-Hand Swings, followed by
10 One-Hand Swings with my right arm, then 10 OneHand Swings with my left arm, and so on. I was so
distracted by the fun of creating the workouts that I didn’t
realize how much work I was actually doing. It was then
that I saw myself in the dressing room mirror.
The History of the Kettlebell By Mark
Reifkind
The kettlebell was originally used in Russia, starting
as far back as the year 1700, as a counterweight to
measure grain. It was perfect for this process because
the handle made it easier to place on and take off the
scale. It soon became a measure of a peasant’s
strength, and all the eyes in the village were on the
one who could lift it overhead in a variety of ways.
What started out as a simple test of strength soon
evolved into an endurance contest with higher and
higher repetitions being the goal. Swinging the bell,
pressing it, and snatching it (swinging it in one
movement overhead with one arm) became standard
movements.
Centuries later the Soviets brought the kettlebell back
as a training tool. They came to realize just how
effective it was for building strength and endurance,
and soon it became standard-issue training for their
military, law enforcement, and Olympic athletes. It is
still used to this day, which means this traditional, preindustrial tool has a surprisingly practical application.
Pavel Tsatsouline, chief instructor of the Russian
Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) and the man who brought
the kettlebell to our shores, calls the kettlebell “low
tech, high concept.”
The kettlebell’s unique design, with the bulk of the
weight offset from the handle, allows it to actually be
swung as opposed to just lifted. This is the crucial
difference between a kettlebell and a dumbbell. The
dumbbell is essentially just an extension of your arm,
but the kettlebell will revolve around in your hand,
pivoting according to its own pathway.
The swinging motion is also what makes the kettlebell
fun. I’ve never had anyone look over at me while I was
leading him or her through a set of bicep curls and
say, “I love this—this is fun!” And yet I hear that almost
every time I teach someone how to swing a kettlebell.
It had been six weeks since I picked up the kettlebell
and started swinging. I had done every workout in my
garage with no mirrors, no clocks, just me and the
kettlebell and my choreographed workouts. I didn’t feel
like I had been doing that much, but I was in for a big
surprise.
While trying on clothes in the Target dressing room, I
glanced at myself in the mirror and saw for the first time
in my life, at the age of forty-one, the shoulder and arm
development I had seen only on athletes’ bodies. I
couldn’t believe it. Who was this person? She was a
dream; she was the girl I always wanted to be.
Suddenly, I saw the miracle, the possibilities right
before my eyes. This epiphany changed the course of
my journey. I wasn’t going to settle anymore—I wanted it
all: the muscle of an athlete, a silhouette I could feel
great about, and the energy to push myself further than I
ever imagined I was able to go.
The Right Kind of Resistance
The kettlebell is a form of weight-resistance training.
Like strength training done with standard weights
(dumbbells, barbells, and so on), it uses gravity to
place a challenge on your muscles. As you lift a
weight or swing a kettlebell through the air, gravity is
trying to bring the weight back down to the ground—
when you use your muscles to oppose this force, you
demand your tissues get to work. And when muscles
are worked, they break down and rebuild, and with
each workout they become stronger, denser, more
efficient calorie-burning machines. The kettlebell is
one of the most effective forms of weight-resistance
training because it operates on multiple planes—
unlike traditional strength training, where the
movements are static and fixed in nature, the
kettlebell creates a dynamic movement that forces
you to create and resist momentum. This engages
and strengthens more muscle tissues at one time,
which allows you to efficiently build fat-burning muscle
and create beautiful tone faster than with other
methods.
In that moment, the kettlebell gave me the hope that had
evaded me in my past attempts at weight loss—it gave
me an undeniable, visible sign that I was doing more
than losing weight; I was transforming my body.
Over the next year, I diligently completed my kettlebell
workouts and made my own meals. I created dozens of
workouts that would push my body and demand
progress from it—and my body responded with results,
dropping weight consistently for sixteen months straight
and revealing incredible muscle tone. Five years later,
the swing is still redefining my expectations of my body,
pushing me to get stronger and to increase muscle
density, which makes my body more efficient at burning
calories and using energy.
It was not by accident that my body transformed as a
result of my kettlebell workouts. In fact, as I would
eventually discover when I became a certified kettlebell
instructor, the kettlebell is the best single apparatus for
total body transformation. It wasn’t that I got lucky; it’s
that the kettlebell works. Here’s why the kettlebell
enabled me to complete the journey and why it can do
the same for you:
Whole Body Workouts: The kettlebell can help you build
strength and endurance, improve flexibility, and promote
weight loss. It’s an all-in-one, multifunctional, multitasking
ball of wonder. There is simply no other single exercise
method or tool that can change your body as completely or
as quickly as the kettlebell.
No Bulk: Typical strength-training exercises have you lift
weights by body part—chest, back, legs, and so on. Guess
what happens when you do that? You create chunky, snapon body parts that seem to function individually rather than
as parts of a whole. With the kettlebell, you focus on
movements that engage your entire body as a unit, which
is why the workouts will make you look athletic and toned,
not bulky and brawny.
Easy on the Joints: Your knees, ankles, and hips absorb
the pressure of your weight when you do activities like
walking, running, or jumping. If you’re significantly
overweight, the pressure from these kinds of activities can
be especially taxing. Does that mean you won’t ever be
able to get a great cardio workout? Nope. Just grab a
kettlebell, which allows you to get an awesome
cardiovascular workout without the wear and tear on your
joints. Hooray for no impact!
Hassle-Free: You don’t have to be coordinated or athletic
to experience the benefits of a kettlebell, nor do you have
to have a lot of money or special clothing or tools. It’s
simple, and it works without fail. Sometimes the simplest
things can create the most profound change.
These benefits can be experienced to some degree
from a variety of kettlebell movements, including
exercises such as the deadlift, squat, clean/press, GetUp, and the snatch. While you may have seen people
attempt these exercises, you most likely have not seen
them done correctly—they require advanced skills and
really should only be done if you have very specific
strength goals. It’s important to master the swing first
because it is the foundation to all other kettlebell
exercises. It also has the greatest fat-burning potential;
so if weight loss is your goal, look no further than the
swing.
The Magic of the Swing
The swing takes all the benefits of the kettlebell and lifts
it to a whole other level of greatness. Simply working out
with kettlebells is not the same as training with the
kettlebell swing. It would be like saying you’ve been to
Las Vegas or Atlantic City when all you’ve done is
bought a $1 lottery ticket at the corner store. In both
cases, you might be playing the odds, but you have not
had the experience. You have not seen the lights and
the outrageousness, the spectacle of it all. The swing is
the experience.
What creates the experience of the swing is the
momentum, or the rhythm created by the motion. When
you swing the kettlebell, you are moving it ballistically,
which means that you are swinging the weight, not lifting
it. Much like a bullet or missile, the kettlebell continues
to move through space on its own after you’ve applied
force to it. With the swing, you harness the power of
momentum created by your hips as you put the bell into
motion, and then the kettlebell moves upward on its
own. You use your hips, legs, and thighs to create the
movement, and your upper body comes along for the
ride, keeping you tethered to the bell. The benefit is you
can swing so much more weight than you can lift, and
more weight means a greater challenge for your body,
which translates to faster results.
How It Works
Let me tell you a little about why the swing is so
incredibly effective at transforming your body. It all
comes down to its ability to rapidly and thoroughly
create muscle and muscle tone, which enables you to
shape your body from the inside out. This process of
shaping your body from the inside out all begins with
contraction, which the swing generates throughout your
body.
Why Women Should Learn to Love
Muscle
Muscle mass declines in both men and women as
they age. It can start as early as thirty, but once you
turn fifty, you lose muscle at a rate of 0.4 percent per
year. For women, this can be especially dangerous
since women generally have less muscle on their
bodies to begin with. Add to that the fact that after
menopause, decreasing levels of estrogen leads to
weakened bones, and you have a collision of
potentially devastating body changes that can lead to
poor balance, broken bones, and limited physical
function. What’s the most prescribed solution to this
health threat? Weight-resistance exercises like the
kettlebell swing. The sooner you start swinging that
weight, the more likely you are to build muscle. Lose
weight, tone your body, and help prevent the effects of
aging.
Your muscles function in a chain of action to reaction:
contraction = tension = tone = strength. When you
contract a muscle, you create tension. This tension, in
turn, is what creates tone. The tone you want on your
arms, the sculpting you want of your abs, and the shape
you’d like to see on your legs—these all originate from
the act of contraction which, like I mentioned, happens
all over your body when you train with the swing. When
muscular contractions are repeated and they become a
skill instead of just a reaction, you have created
strength. And once your muscles have strength, you
have earned something worth preserving, a precious
attribute you are willing to work to keep—a precious
asset that also happens to look amazing in tank tops.
When muscles contract often, they stand ready to
contract even when they’re at rest. Everyone has a
resting level of tension in our muscles all day. You’ve
probably seen people who look muscular even when
they’re doing nothing—these people have a higher
resting level of tone in their muscles because they have
been contracting them regularly; in other words, they’ve
been working out to the point where their muscles at
rest have shape. Even if they have a layer of fat over the
muscle, you can distinguish trained bodies versus
untrained bodies (it’s so much more attractive to have
some shape going on!).
There are three basic types of muscle contractions:
raising weight (concentric contraction), lowering weight
(eccentric contraction), and holding weight (isometric or
static contraction). Swinging a kettlebell involves all
three types of contraction at different points in the
swing. When you are standing up with the bell, you are
using concentric contraction; when the bell is lowering
between your legs, this creates eccentric contraction;
and when you are tethered to the bell as you hold your
body steady while the bell swings to and fro, you are
using isometric contraction.
When you combine all of these for each repetition, you
experience a synergistic effect that very quickly creates
spectacular results in muscle tone and strength. Then
we add in the element of acceleration—the speed of the
swing—and the effects are magnified even further. The
loads that your muscles and your body are experiencing
when you swing are five to ten times greater than the
amount of weight on the face of the kettlebell. You
simply can’t create the same type of workout with a
static lifting motion.
The better you get at the swing, the more force you can
produce and the faster your results will be, which really
can’t be said for many other activities. Once you get
past being a beginning runner, it’s very hard to run
faster. The same goes for swimming. In fact, the better
you get at most cardiovascular activities, the fewer
calories you burn and the fewer muscles you engage
because your body gets so efficient at these
movements. Keeping your heart rate up and keeping
the muscles stimulated is very tough as you advance,
unless you up the mileage and time spent training,
which often leads to injuries.
You aren’t going to experience any of these problems
with the kettlebell swing. I’m going to teach you how to
increase the workload and the workout dramatically by
simply modifying your rest intervals or moving up to a
slightly heavier kettlebell. Here’s all you really need to
know about the swing: nothing works all your muscles
better or simultaneously burns more fat and builds more
muscle. Nothing.
The Body Possible
The benefit of sculpting your internal musculature while
you lose weight is that you create a body that has
beautiful shape and definition. I want you to think of it as
building up your inner mannequin that will look amazing
in all your favorite clothes. If you don’t add muscle while
you lose weight, you end up with soft, loose skin that just
hangs on your body like clothes on a wire hanger—in
other words, you end up looking skinny and fat at the
same time. But when you put those same clothes over a
solid, shapely mannequin, you have a body and an outfit
worth showing off.
That’s how I managed to lose so much weight and not
end up with the dreaded aftermath of saggy skin, a
telltale sign of former obesity. The musculature I crafted
with my swings allowed my skin to almost shrink-wrap
back into shape. I can’t tell you how many times I have
been asked this question about loose skin. Complete
strangers ask me this question all the time, and you
know why? Because I look great and they can’t believe I
ever weighed close to 300 pounds.
I find the question very personal, but at the same time,
it’s a strange indicator of how unbelievable my results
seem to people. Depending on how much weight you
have to lose, you might experience it for yourself, and if
you do, try to consider yourself lucky when a complete
stranger asks you about your skin.
I’m not saying you’ll be seeing me in a bikini anywhere,
ever. I am close to fifty, I’ve had a couple of children,
and I’m far from perfect compared to the perpetually
young standards of today. What I can say, however, is
that without a doubt I would not trade my body with
anyone. I am not ashamed of any imperfections I may
have, whether I perceive them as such or someone else
does, and I especially couldn’t care less about what
anyone else thinks of my body.
You don’t have to be enormously overweight, or
overweight at all, to have concerns about loose or lowhanging skin, especially on your arms where your
triceps should be. You may be able to hide it on your
legs, but it gets hot in the summertime, and I know all
women—and men too—want to be able to look and feel
good in a tank top, especially if you’re over forty.
When I was first interviewed by Tim Ferriss for The 4-
Hour Body, I talked about Michelle Obama’s arms and
how they were all the rage, especially among middleaged women. Middle-aged women saw those arms and
how she proudly displayed them, and they were envious
of how confident and strong she looked. More than that,
we were in awe because here was a woman who was
over forty wearing sleeveless shirts, not just in her
backyard but all over the country and in front of
cameras. And she looked great doing it.
You know why her arms look amazing? Because she
has muscle! Toned upper arms look marvelous
because they have the shape of the musculature
underneath. Building and activating the muscles of your
arms is the first part of getting toned arms. To bring your
muscles back to life, you must give them the job they
were originally created to do: work. The second part of
getting shapely arms is to get rid of the layer of fat that’s
covering up the beautiful muscle you’re about to build.
The kettlebell swing will take care of both of these tasks
simultaneously.
Since the power and momentum of the kettlebell swing
is generated with a hip and leg movement, you might
think there would be no advantage for your upper body.
In reality, the swing will fire up and engage just about
every muscle in your body, from toes to nose. Some of
the less obvious muscular contractions happening when
you swing are in the lat (back) muscles, the abdominal
muscles (from breathing), the triceps and biceps, and
the pectorals (chest). You will be using a lot of muscle
without even knowing it, but your body knows, and the
effects will be obvious as they begin to remodel your
shape and show up in your mirror.
The Beauty of Expansion
The swing will open you up to face the world with
absolute confidence and vitality. You’ll discover that it’s
an empowering move based on expansion, a
movement that literally opens you up to life. It will
broaden your chest, pull your shoulders back and open,
and strengthen your back. The swing is the solution to
the seated existence in which your daily activities have
made you barely strong enough to oppose gravity. Think
about it—how much of your day do you just sit while
engaged in other activities? Working on a computer,
driving, reading, eating, watching TV … all sitting
activities.
All these activities combine to create a closed-off
posture with all forces pulling inward—you’ve seen the
people (maybe you’re one of them) with forward
sloping, rounded shoulders. This is more than an
outward appearance; these are physical signs that
reflect an internal attitude of defeat. You simply cannot
feel your strongest, most confident, and most beautiful
self when your body is physically closing in around you,
shutting you off from the world. The swing will help you
fight back against the forces that shrink your energy and
enthusiasm for life. When you try it, you’ll understand: it
feels celebratory and expansive. As you begin to swing,
focus on this quality of the movement—see your body
opening up, your confidence and energy growing. Get
ready to take on life with a renewed sense of strength
and the power to overcome anything that comes your
way.
No Room for Excuses
The kettlebell swing helped me realize how little I
needed to be my best. With one movement and one
bell, I created the best version of myself, and it all
started the day I walked into our garage gym and
picked up the kettlebell. The garage was dark and dusty
and filled with a lot of my husband’s power-lifting gear,
but what I experienced in that room was a bright and
hopeful revelation. It was there that I realized I was in
charge of creating my own change; that I could
accomplish anything I wanted, and that included
creating the body of my dreams.
I never thought it was possible for me to experience life
from a place where I feel connected to my confidence,
where I feel truly strong of body and mind, but I am proof
that it is possible.
As you get ready to swing, I want you to think about
stripping away all the junk in your life—all the baggage,
blame, crappy foods, failed attempts at fitness, messy
emotions. Trust yourself enough to accept an end to the
fight between you and your body and to adopt a new
mantra: it’s not that hard. Eat real foods, swing a
kettlebell, and repeat. See yourself walking into a room
where it’s just you and this little bell of cast iron—can
you pick it up and transform your life? Yes, you can, and
it’s that simple. You’re going to have to work really hard
to find an excuse. You can think about it some more
while I get back to swinging.
7 Getting Ready to Swing
To get started with the swing, here’s
what you need: nothing. That’s right—
you can actually start practicing the
swing movement with just your body. I
call these Air Swings, and they will
familiarize you with the motion and even
provide a challenging workout for some
of you. Of course, you should get a
kettlebell as soon as possible, but don’t
let that wait time go to waste—see The
Air Swing to learn how to perform an Air
Swing.
Throughout the rest of this chapter, I’m going to give you
some instructions for selecting your kettlebell, along with
some information on other products you can pick up
after you’ve started your workouts. Most of these are
simple tools that can help your workouts, but they aren’t
all essential. Let’s get to the most important tool first:
the kettlebell.
Selecting Your Kettlebell
Because kettlebells are of European origin, they are
usually sold in kilograms. One kilogram is equal to 2.2
pounds. The most common starting weights for a
female are either an 8-kilogram or 12-kilogram
kettlebell, which translates into 18 or 26 pounds. For a
male, a good starting weight is 16 kilograms, which is
36 pounds. If you’re a man over 200 pounds and/or you
have experience weight training, then your starting
kettlebell could be 20 kilograms (44 pounds).
The Two-Hand Swing is the exercise I will be putting
most emphasis on in this book. With this movement, it’s
important to get a bell that’s heavy enough—a bell that’s
too light may not give you the feedback you need to feel
the proper motion. That being said, you can still get
quite a workout using the swing movements with no
weight. It’s the movement itself that is so powerful, but
when you add weight to it, it really becomes magic.
The drills in the Learn section (see The Learn Phase)
will teach you how to get into the correct positions and
postures before adding weight to your workout. You will
quickly become aware of how even a workout using just
air can be more dynamic than almost anything else
you’ve tried.
If and when you want to incorporate the One-Hand
Swing, I recommend using a lighter kettlebell: 6 to 8
kilograms for women and 12 to 14 kilograms for men. If
you are a female beginner, do not attempt the OneHand Swing with anything over 10 kilograms; a male
beginner should not attempt it with anything over 16
kilograms.
Somewhere Between a Dungeon and a
Dream Factory
Personally, I like the no-frills approach to a workout
space. It may result from being around so many serious,
competitive lifters (including the one I’ve been married
to for over twenty years), but I’ve learned that the most
important detail in a workout space besides equipment
is some hard rock music. This works for me because I
find there’s something about that atmosphere that says,
“It’s just me against the world”—and that makes me
want to work hard. Certainly, I can see the appeal of
more comfortable surroundings, especially a space that
includes the luxury of heat. Swinging out in my garage in
the winter (even in California) can get as cold as 32
degrees, but with bare feet and a frozen kettlebell
handle, it’s still never stopped me.
I know a lot of my clients and students prefer to swing in
private, away from the eyes of family members who
might be thinking, “That looks crazy!” The good news is,
wherever you can carve out a space of four feet by six
feet, you can swing a kettlebell. Add whatever you want
to your space—claim it as yours with things that
motivate you.
When you get to your workouts, make sure that small
children and pets are not in the way, and for obvious
reasons, do not swing in front of the TV. If you drop a
bell, it shouldn’t travel far, but how far it goes really
depends on when you lose your grip during the motion
of the swing. I have dropped a bell only a few times, only
while I was moving it from one hand to another and
mostly because I created too much power with my hips
using a bell that was too light. I’ve never dropped a bell
using the two-hand method, and most likely you won’t
either, but be smart about your surroundings.
Tools for Swinging
The first piece of additional equipment I recommend
you have nearby is a clock with a second hand. The
alarm clock I use is so old I don’t even remember when I
got it. The important part is not its age or its size—it’s
all about the second hand. I’ve since upgraded to a wall
clock, but in all honesty, I still use both in my garage
gym.
You’ll need the second hand because establishing the
pace of the swing is one of your first lessons, and the
pace is one of the most important factors for your body
to get when you start to practice and train with the
swing. Eventually you will need to know the time of your
sets (the number of swing reps before rest is taken) and
the time of your rest periods, but we’ll get to that later.
As you work your way up to progressions, you can also
pick up a useful tool called an interval timer.
The most popular one I know of is called the Gymboss,
and it is relatively inexpensive. You can also try to find
an application for an interval timer on your smartphone,
if you have one. The interval timer is helpful to me
because it keeps track of how many total interval sets
I’ve completed. At the same time, knowing the total time
of a workout is the only way I know when to stop training.
I’m sure my students appreciate this too.
Like I mentioned, I prefer to put on some rock music for
my personal workouts, and I also use the same type of
music for my advanced classes. I’ve trained plenty in
silence, but I prefer motivating rhythms and lyrics. For
my beginner-level classes, I put on dance music or
upbeat pop songs. It’s definitely a matter of taste, but I
suggest picking something up-tempo to get you
motivated for your workouts.
You should always have some water nearby. Water is a
must, and it doesn’t hurt to have a towel and some
tissues on hand. If you have hardwood floors like I do,
then I suggest lying down a simple doormat (I
purchased mine at Ikea for a few bucks) to protect the
floor. A fan is a luxury, although it can become a
necessity in the summertime. Personally, I like sweating
because it lets me know how hard I’m working—and I
know I’m having a really good workout when my shins
start to sweat.
When it comes to protecting your hands (if you care to
do so—it’s not required), weightlifting gloves are
typically not recommended because the leather palms
do not let the bell pivot in your hand, but many of my
students use them. I’ve also seen people use cotton
gardening gloves with the fingers cut off. My favorite
option is my own creation: Tracy Rif’s Sock Sleeves. I
came up with the idea for Sock Sleeves out of necessity
because gloves didn’t work for me; I needed a fabric
that was slippery and would allow smooth swings. I tried
wristbands, but they were too thick. So I cut off the top of
a sock—the part that goes around your ankle—and
placed it around my palms, and voilà, problem solved.
This inexpensive, yet effective solution has even been
adopted at RKC Certifications and suggested in the
RKC manual.
If you’ve ever spent much time in a gym, you’ve noticed
there are mirrors all over the place. They’re not just
there to make you feel uncomfortable or for purposes of
vanity; a mirror can be an invaluable tool when it comes
to checking form. When training with the kettlebell, the
only time you should use a mirror is when you encounter
a mistake you can’t feel your way out of (you can also
use a video camera to see where any corrections need
to be made). Usually you can feel when and how you’re
out of position, but identifying which specific part of the
movement you are out of position on can be difficult,
which is when a mirror can be helpful.
I don’t, however, suggest a mirror for learning the swing
because it tends to pull you forward and it delays the
real feedback from your body. It takes too long for you to
see your image and then transport the correction back
to your brain. Imagine trying to learn to ride a bike while
looking at your image in a mirror—there would be too
many little movements trying to capture your vision.
Instead, you want to refine your proprioception skills, to
know where your body is in space. Once you’ve felt how
to swing the right way, you’ll be able to perceive where
adjustments need to be made if a movement feels off.
I never teach anyone how to move the bell from two
hands to one, or from one hand to another, in front of a
mirror because they tend to look at the bell in the mirror,
not at the one in their hands. Remember this when you
begin to practice the One-Hand Swing and transfers—
it’s better to let your body become familiar with these
exercises before you add in a mirror to improve or selfcorrect your form.
What to Wear
Here’s what to wear when doing your kettlebell
workouts: whatever is comfortable. Don’t go out and buy
anything special because it’s not going to fit you for
long. I trained in my jeans for years for exactly this
reason. Unless some new clothes will fuel motivation,
there is no practical reason to get them.
I knew I was going to lose 100 pounds, and that meant
going from a size 24 to a size 8. I did not buy anything
new until my clothes were literally falling off my body.
Because I lost weight so quickly, I went from a size 24 to
a 14, then down to a 10, then to a 6, never buying sizes
in between. It would have only been a waste of money
for me to buy clothes for those in-between sizes—that’s
how certain I was of where I was going, and I wasn’t
about to stop midway to my destination.
I wore jeans for almost three years of weight loss and
workouts. The attire also lent itself to my hardcore
approach and attitude; it was like an act of rebellion to
refuse to go out and buy what other people said were
appropriate exercise clothes. I really disliked the
pretentiousness of all the skinny little “chickie-dos” (my
mother’s word) running around in their workout clothes
or their tennis outfits… I did not want to be like them. I
have to admit I recently started to wear exercise clothes
because I found a brand called Lululemon, and the
design and quality is attractive to me. I guess I’ve
become a chickie-do, but I worked extremely hard to be
able to feel great in the clothes that cling to my body.
When it comes to footwear for your workouts, you
should wear a pair of flat-bottomed shoes, like
Converse Chuck Taylors, Vibram FiveFingers (what I’m
wearing in the pictures in this book), or something
similar. Other common flat-soled shoes used by
kettlebell athletes these days are made by brands like
Puma and Merrell. Your feet are the connection to the
ground, and you want to be solidly rooted to the ground
when you’re swinging. Soft, cushy shoes delay the
feedback from the ground to your body. And every inch
of heel height pushes your body forward 15 degrees,
which disturbs your center of balance. For this reason,
any kind of shoe with an incline is not recommended.
No running shoes!
I prefer to train barefoot now, but that wasn’t always the
case. When I was fat, I never went barefoot because my
feet were too weak to support my body. I wore shoes all
the time, even indoors while doing housework because
although I couldn’t explain it at the time, my feet just
weren’t strong enough to handle the extreme load of my
body weight, even while doing everyday tasks.
When you begin your workouts, I recommend you stick
with flat-bottomed shoes, but as you progress, don’t be
afraid to try going barefoot down the road—it’s
liberating and lets you really feel the ground.
Eating Before and After Workouts
I train in the morning because I’m a morning person. I’ve
trained as early as five thirty to get my workout in on
days when I have other appointments or commitments
that may interfere. I would train at three A.M. if I had to,
but that’s me.
Since I train first thing in the morning, I never eat
beforehand. If you eat first, or give your body fuel as
soon as you wake up, it has no reason to tap into stored
energy because you’ve increased your blood sugar and
your body will use what’s immediately within reach. You
want to train your body to go into its stored energy
source—the fat. By exercising in a fasted state, you
accelerate your body’s ability to burn fat. Tapping into
fat reserves will accelerate your weight loss, and it will
help you develop the hormones necessary to burn fat by
keeping your insulin levels low. Keeping insulin low is
good for a number of reasons: it increases your ability
to burn fat, decreases inflammation, staves off hunger,
and keeps insulin sensitivity high, which reduces your
chances of creating metabolic syndrome (the precursor
to diabetes).
The other benefit of exercising in a fasted state is that
you keep all the blood ready to surge into your muscles
with energy and oxygen. If you are digesting food, the
blood has to go to the stomach, which makes it
unavailable to your muscles. It may take awhile to adapt
to exercising in a fasted state, but you will and you’ll
realize how much better you feel during your workouts.
If you absolutely feel you have to eat before a workout,
then it should be something small and easily digestible;
something not too heavy in proteins, fats, or fiber
because they take a long time to digest. Fruit is a good
choice, or yogurt, or—and this is the only time you will
hear me say this—half an energy bar would work too. If
you opt for fruit, I recommend either melon or some
slices of an apple.
When you are not jumping right into a workout, the rules
for your morning meal swap—skip sugary options and
go for a lighter protein like nuts.
If you have to train in the evenings before dinner, avoid
eating a big meal at least two hours prior to your
workout. Save your biggest meal for after your workout.
Remember, not eating forces your body to go into
stored energy. To give you an idea of how much stored
energy you have on your body, here are a couple quick
examples: if you are 50 pounds overweight, you have
175,000 calories of stored energy; 30 pounds
overweight means 105,000 calories of stored energy.
You can afford to burn some of those reserves!
Once you’ve finished your workout, don’t think of
yourself as having earned the reward of food. For
optimal weight loss, you should wait at least one hour
and then eat a wholesome, balanced meal. If you wait
awhile after training, your body will continue to tap in to
fat stores.
An Active Warm-Up
I prefer the active warm-up of walking to a static warmup of stretching. A 10-minute walk is just enough to get
some blood pumping through my veins and to raise my
body temperature, easing me into the more demanding
kettlebell workout ahead. Mentally, I can clear my mind
and separate my workout from the rest of my day.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t incorporate regular
stretching into your life—creating and maintaining
flexibility can be extremely important, especially as you
get older. The difficult part about stretching, for me, is
following through with it on a regular basis, but it’s
probably just because I don’t like to sit still for long.
There is a correct way to stretch, and it can be a
learned skill just like any other physical activity. Being
married to a former elite gymnast, I know firsthand the
importance of stretching properly. I highly suggest
working with someone who can show you how to stretch
correctly if you want to use this as your warm-up. First
thing’s first, though—let’s get some of this extra weight
off, and then you can focus on improving your flexibility.
Scheduling Workouts
Your very first swing workout may be with no bell, but
bell or no bell, you should not spend more than fifteen to
twenty minutes practicing this new movement. You will
be stretching and loading muscles you haven’t felt for
years, and regardless of any added weight, you will
most likely experience soreness ranging from mild to
significant discomfort when walking or sitting. Don’t be
scared of soreness; think of it as something you’ve
earned thanks to your hard work, and remember it will
go away (I recommend light stretching to help ease
soreness). That being said, don’t overdo it with the
amount of time you spend swinging in the beginning. My
Learn to Swing classes are never more than thirty
minutes long, and this includes a lot of talking through
instructions and exercise drills—the actual swing time is
less than half that.
Once you are comfortable in establishing correct form
and movement, your workouts will require no more than
twenty to thirty minutes of your time, two to three days a
week. You’re not going to spend twenty to thirty minutes
swinging nonstop; this is total time of your workouts,
including rest periods. Aim to work out at least two days
a week, but I think you’ll be surprised to discover that
you want more. Just be sure you give your body a day
between workouts for recovery, practicing every other
day at the most. Recovery is extremely important for
progress because it’s when your body makes physical
changes or creates results—it doesn’t happen when
you’re training. Training is the stimulation, and recovery
is the adaptation.
“Can I Swing Every Day?”
Believe it or not, “Can I swing every day?” is one of the
most common questions I hear. My reply is always the
same: “If you could, I would be doing it right now.” In
fact, one of the reasons why I took up yoga was
because I knew I shouldn’t swing every day.
Let the swings do their best work by ensuring you give
your body enough rest. If you feel you have to do
something to accelerate your results, spend any free
time you have on preparing foods and eating better,
and walking to help improve your base level of fitness.
If you like extra time, you’re going to love the swing.
Just twenty to thirty minutes, two times a week, spent
swinging will leave you plenty of time to spend doing
other activities that are important for your body and
your life.
The most important point when it comes to scheduling
your workouts is to establish a consistent time on your
weekly calendar. Just as you take your kids to school at
a certain time or you have that weekly work meeting,
you have to get a regular time set for your workouts. I
like to say, “If your plan is to not plan, then you don’t
have a plan.” Having a plan is less about being strict
and rigid and more about removing the problem of too
much choice, which inevitably leads to procrastination.
If you have been using the excuse of having no time to
workout, then I want you to take a bit more responsibility
and replace, “I don’t have time,” with, “I won’t make
time,” because that’s what it really comes down to.
What if you developed an illness or condition that
required multiple doctors’ appointments or, God forbid,
hospitalization? Do you have the time for that? Or what
if a family member did, would you not have time to take
him to his appointments? Somehow we find time when
tragedy strikes. Perhaps that’s a bit dramatic, but I think
you can either make the choice of how you spend your
time now, or you can wait until something makes the
choice for you. It’s up to you.
I like to think of my choice to train as a reward, not a
punishment or a do-or-die situation. I get to spend
twenty to thirty minutes, two to three times a week,
swinging a kettlebell, and in return I am rewarded with
the priceless gift of a fit, healthy, toned, and capable
body. If you cannot make time for it, then I’m not going to
beg you to workout. Nobody has to beg me; in fact,
nothing or no one could stop me from getting my
workouts in each week. I’m showing you where the pot
of gold is; if you don’t want it, then don’t cry about being
poor. You can have the body you want; you can live a
strong, healthy, active life. You can go through a
personal transformation as incredible as mine—stop
settling and start becoming the person you were meant
to be.
Exercising for the Right Reasons
I want you to keep something in mind as you begin your
workouts: think about swings as something you’re doing
to create a skill, not something you’re doing to make up
for the food you’re eating. If progress is not the reason
for training, and instead you’re just trying to burn off
extra calories, then you may be exercising for the wrong
reasons. You may be putting in what are known as junk
miles—workouts completed to make up for a poor diet,
instead of done with the intention to create progress or
results.
Will more exercise burn more calories? Yes, because it
all comes back to science. That doesn’t mean,
however, that you’ll create better or faster results. The
return on the investment is minimal at best. I prefer to
look at my exercise the way an athlete looks at his
chosen sport. I ask myself: Am I getting better?
Stronger? Leaner? Faster? Asking yourself these
questions as you make progress will help you establish
built-in markers of motivation. If you’re simply spinning
your wheels with no plan or thought to the progressive
improvement of performance, then you’re on a road to
nowhere.
The Chance You Deserve
I’d like to say, “Give the swing the chance it deserves,”
but really it’s about what you deserve—the swing is
already secure in its greatness, it’s yours that we are
going to bring to life. As you begin with the swing, keep
in mind that as with every new skill there is a learning
curve—don’t get discouraged because what you might
lack in skill or talent, you can make up for in
consistency. No matter your athletic (or nonathletic)
history, you will begin to feel truly in charge of the
movement after just 3-4 practices. You will also feel
great improvements in your strength and cardiovascular
health and see your body changing faster than you ever
thought possible. Remember to feel the motion, rather
than spend too much time thinking about it—like a kid
on a swing, enjoy the rhythm and just have fun!
8 Learning the Kettlebell Swing
I’ve designed a system that will let you
jump into your kettlebell training with
confidence and will create results as
quickly and safely as possible. The
movements you are going to perform
couldn’t be simpler—they are based on
the primal movement of the swing, which
is a natural, fun movement that truly
feels fabulous.
The LPT Best Body Plan
Even though the actual movements are simple, it’s
important to establish a foundational understanding of
form, breathing, and rhythm. That’s why I created the
Learn, Practice, Train (LPT) Best Body Plan. Learn,
Practice, and Train each represent a distinct phase
that I will lead you through as you progress in your
kettlebell workouts. Here’s a quick preview of what you’ll
discover in each section:
Learn: This phase will set the groundwork for your
workouts and will show you how to maximize its effects
from day one. I will also cover how to create your ideal
workout with proper form and breathing, and tell you how to
set up a great workout space. Remember—no gym
required!
Practice: This is when you’ll first start to use a practice
strategy I call On the Minute training. This is a basic
method that will help you establish an understanding of
intervals and a work-to-rest ratio—the amount of time you
spend swinging to the amount of time you spend resting.
Train: Once you reach this phase, you’ve already created
outstanding changes in your body—now it’s time to use
advanced choreographed routines to continue pushing and
improving your body. We’ll also add in a few more moves
in this phase.
And now, let’s jump right in and get you swinging!
The Learn Phase
Since we’re going to focus on one central movement—
the Two-Hand Swing—I want you to have access to
everything there is to know about the movement. It’s not
complicated or advanced, but creating a connection to
all the parts of your body that come to life in the swing
will reward you with better results. In the Learn part of
LPT, you will become a true student of the swing—this
will be your own personal training session with me as I
guide you through basic drills to help you get the feel of
the movement.
When you first learn how to swing, it’s important to have
an awareness of your spine and its formation,
specifically the four natural curves that make it functional
and allow you to create a straight spine. You may have
heard the phrase straight spine before, but chances
are, you don’t really know what it is, how it feels, or what
it looks like. A straight spine aligns the four natural
curves that run from your neck down to your tailbone.
When you start to work out with your kettlebell, keeping
these four curves in mind will help protect your back:
The cervical curve includes the vertebrae that support
your neck.
The thoracic spine makes up the middle back and
represents the longest part of your spine.
The lumbar includes the thickest vertebrae (think of the
foundation of a building) and is located in your lower
back.
The sacral curve is where the bones at the base of
your spine connect with your pelvic bone.
Even without the kettlebell, having an awareness of
these important points along your spine can improve
your general posture, help you breathe easier by
opening up your airways, and enhance confidence—try
it right now. Sit up straight, take a nice, strong inhale,
and then exhale. See what I mean? An open, expanded
chest and an upright posture can make you feel
powerful and ready to take on life.
One misconception about creating a straight back is
that you have to be upright to do it. In reality, you can
actually be leaning forward and still have a straight
spine, and this is the position you are going to create in
your swings. As I break down the form of the swing for
you, you’ll learn the techniques to maintain a straight
spine as you hinge through the motion.
It’s Not a Squat (or a Front Raise)
I want to make an important distinction about the main
movement for the swing: it’s a hinge, not a squat, and
you move the bell with the power of your hips, not by
raising it with your arms. When people first see the
swing and try to re-create the movement, they often go
into a squat—for some reason it’s the way their brains
communicate the movement to their bodies. The
problem is, if you just do a squat with the kettlebell,
you’re missing the most powerful and fun part of the
swing. A squat is an up-and-down movement; a hinge
allows you to swing back and forth.
When you squat (see “Incorrect” image, below), your
knees bend and move forward (many times past your
toes, even though this isn’t proper form) as you move up
and down while staying vertical. Hinging originates from
the point where your legs meet your torso. When you
hinge (see “Correct” image, below), you lean forward
and push your butt backward while keeping your shins
vertical. This creates a back-and-forth rocking motion,
instead of an up-and-down one.
You also want to pay attention to your arms and
shoulders. Don’t try to lift the bell in front of you with your
arms, instead let your hips drive the movement and
create the momentum. Trust me, your arms are going to
get plenty of work, but your hips are much stronger, so
let them lead.
The other common mistake people make is thinking
that the start of the swing happens in front, when really,
just as a child on a playground backs up first to swing,
you must back up the bell (it’s often called a hiking
motion), load your hips, and then create the swing.
I’m going to take you through some drills to help you get
the feel of the swing movement.
The Chair Hinge Drill
Grab a standard four-legged chair and your kettlebell;
place them two to three feet from one another. Stand
with the back of your legs touching the chair, then step
out about six inches and plant your feet slightly wider
than hip-distance apart. You should be midway between
the chair and the kettlebell. (If you don’t have a kettlebell
yet, there are several options to use as a placeholder:
an empty milk container, an empty or half-full gallon of
paint, a small pot, or even just a purse or backpack.)
While keeping your back straight, hinge toward the
chair behind you with your hands in the creases of your
hips, pushing yourself backward (gently). As you
perform this movement, visualize hinging back and
down as if you were going to sit in the chair, but don’t sit
down. Feel your hamstrings and glutes stretch and load
as you reach back with your butt, and then stand up.
As you stand up, contract your quadriceps muscles by
lifting up on your kneecaps, and squeeze your glutes
tightly. By doing this, you ensure that your legs are
straight and your hips are forward. This is the top
position of the kettlebell swing.
Repeat this same motion 5–10 times, only this time
inhale as you hinge back and down, then sharply exhale
as you stand up straight. The sharp exhalation at the top
of the movement will create the inhalation for the next
swing rep.
The Chair Hike Drill
Now do the Chair Hinge Drill, only this time start with
your arms extended out in front of you at hip level (your
hands can be placed one on top of the other to help you
start to feel the move with two hands). As you hinge
back and down, push your arms back and reach for the
chair seat with your hands as if you were hiking a ball
behind you (you don’t have to literally “touch” the chair;
creating the motion of reaching back is the most
important part). You should also feel the outsides of your
palms touching the uppermost part of your inner thighs.
This connection is what transfers the power of your hips
through your arms and hands to the bell. The motion of
pushing your arms back and behind you is the start of
the kettlebell swing—it begins when you back the bell
up.
Once you tap the chair seat with your hands, quickly
stand up straight, swinging your hands out in front of you
to hip level only. Remember to contract your quads,
squeeze your glutes, and exhale sharply as you stand.
Repeat this sequence 5–10 times: hinge back and
down, push your arms back, and touch the chair with
your hands. Stand up.
You should be feeling the power of the swing about now
—just imagine how it’s going to feel once you add the
kettlebell in!
The Single Swing Drill
Return to your position between the kettlebell and your
chair. Hinge back and down, reaching out in front of you
to touch the handle of the bell. This is your starting and
end position for this drill, but you won’t be picking up the
kettlebell quite yet. The entire sequence will look like
this:
Touch the handle of the bell.
Reach back to touch the chair with your hands.
Stand up straight, contracting quads, glutes, and abs,
while swinging your arms out in front of you to hip level
(not higher).
Hinge back and down again, reaching back to touch the
chair with your hands.
Touch the handle of the bell.
As you stand up, “shake it out”—shake your arms,
hands, and legs to release tension you’ve created while
contracting your muscles. This is a good habit to get
into after you perform your swings.
If I were teaching you the Single Swing in a class right
now, this is how I would guide you through this drill: “Get
in position. Now, handle of the bell, touch the chair,
stand up swing, touch the chair, handle of the bell.
Repeat. Handle of the bell, touch the chair, stand up
swing, touch the chair, handle of the bell. Great job!”
This is an excellent sequence to practice over and over
again; it will help you start to familiarize your body with
the movement of picking up the bell, swinging the bell
once, and then putting the bell down. The next exercise
will take you through continuous swing movements
without “putting the bell down” between each swing.
The Air Swing
The swing happens faster than you think. To make sure
you’re ready for it, I’m going to have you put the Single
Swing Drill into more action. This means you’ll be
performing the sequence consecutively. These are what
I call Air Swings, but they’re not just for practice, they
can be a workout in themselves. Since I’ve led you
through the full description of each part of the
movement, I’m going to describe this in simple steps
(refer back to the previous steps for comprehensive
descriptions). Try it out:
Touch the handle of the bell.
Reach back and touch the chair.
Stand up swing.
Reach back and touch the chair.
Stand up swing.
Reach back and touch the chair.
Stand up swing.
Repeat 7 more times for a total of 10 swings.
After touching the chair one last time, pretend to put the
bell down by touching the handle of the bell.
Tired yet?
Timed Air Swings
I want to make sure you’re starting to get the pace, so
now I’m going to have you time your Air Swings. Get a
clock with a clearly visible second hand and put it
somewhere you can see it. When the second hand gets
to the twelve, perform a set of 10 Air Swings. Check
your time. How was it? I’m going to guess not quite fast
enough. You should be completing 10 Air Swings in
fifteen seconds—that’s how fast the swing happens!
When the second hand gets to the three, you should be
finishing your tenth Air Swing. Because pacing is so
important with the swing, you must succeed at this pace
with Air Swings before moving on to using the bell. I’m
trying to make the swing easier for you—once you add
the bell in, you’ll realize how important pace is.
Have you reached 10 Air Swings in fifteen seconds?
You can move on now to the full swing, but for some of
you, the Air Swing may have been a workout in itself,
and that’s okay. If you’ve broken a sweat and raised
your heart rate, congratulations! You’ve made your first
step toward reconnecting with your body. If you don’t
have a bell yet or you feel that the Air Swings alone
were challenging for your body, try this Bell-Free
Workout for a week:
The Bell-Free Workout
Complete 3 Single Swings. Rest 10–30 seconds.
Complete 5 Single Swings. Rest 15–45 seconds.
Complete 8 Single Swings. Rest 30–60 seconds.
Complete 10 Single Swings. Rest 30–90 seconds.
Now add in Air Swings:
Complete 8–10 Air Swings. Rest 15–45 seconds.
Repeat entire sequence starting with 3 Single Swings
2–3 more times.
Don’t linger too long on just the Air Swings, though—the
kettlebell is what’s going to create the incredible results
(it’s what makes this a weight-resistant exercise). So
without further delay, let’s get to grabbing that bell.
The Rest That’s Right for You
One of the great aspects about your first few workouts
is that you decide how much rest you need between
sets (you’ll notice in the Bell-Free Workout, I’ve given
the rest time a range). This is all based on your level
of fitness, taking into consideration your current body
weight and/or past or current workout history.
Because you will feel your heart rate increase quickly,
it’s important to let it come back down so you will be
able to perform your next set of swings, but it’s equally
important that you not take too much rest. A good way
to measure is to take the talk test. If you are gasping
for air, you haven’t given yourself enough rest; if you
can hold a conversation, you’ve had too much rest.
If you have a heart rate monitor, you want it to read
around 110 before moving into your next set. Without
a monitor, count the number of beats during a sixsecond interval and multiply by ten to get your heart
rate. If you’re getting eleven to twelve beats per six
seconds, then you’re ready to jump back in.
You should be able to perform 8–10 Air Swings without
much cardiovascular difficulty, but keep in mind, once
you add the weight resistance of the kettlebell, this
number of reps will be more difficult and you will, more
than likely, need longer rest periods.
Hike the Bell
Remove the chair so there’s a clear space behind you.
Now it’s just you and the bell, which should be about six
inches in front of your feet. Before you do the full swing
with a bell, you need to practice one more move, but
you are going to use the kettlebell this time.
Stand in front of the bell and get a good grip on the
handle with both hands.
Without standing up, simply hike the kettlebell back and
up behind you, re-creating the motion of touching the
chair, and then let it swing forward and back to its
position on the ground in front of you.
Repeat this 4–5 times.
The important point of this drill is to get used to the
weight of the bell and to focus on creating the angle of
the movement—you are hiking it back and up at the
same time. Remember, like a kid on a swing, you have
to back up first. The force you create by pushing the bell
back and up is what creates the momentum for the
kettlebell to float out and swing in front of your body.
Don’t be afraid if you hit your butt with the bell; that’s
actually good at this point.
The Swing
Are you ready to swing? I know I am! You’ve already
done Air Swings, so you’ve familiarized your body with
the movement, and you’ve hiked the weight back, so
you know what it feels like to have the kettlebell weight
in your hands—now it’s time to put it all together.
Remember, you are going to perform the same
movement as the Air Swing, only with a bell in your
hands—don’t overthink it. The swing is a very natural
movement, and once you feel it done right, you won’t
ever forget it—just like riding a bike.
Just like with the last drill, I want you to put the bell about
six inches in front of you on the ground. Here’s the
complete swing, broken down into steps.
Obviously you can’t read the steps as you’re swinging
so read through them, then jump right up to do your
swings, and don’t forget—it’s supposed to be fun!
End by bending your knees, letting the bell swing behind
you and then land out in front as you softly place it back
on the ground.
That’s the swing! It might be hard to believe, but that is
the move that helped me lose nearly 120 pounds and
transform my body.
You can continue to practice with the swing and see
how it feels, but as soon as you’re ready, I recommend
getting started with the workouts beginning on The
Swing Workouts. Now that you understand the basics of
the swing, I’m going to use the rest of this chapter to
give you some modifications, refinements, and form
fixes.
Hike back and up
Stand up swing, bringing your extended arms to about
hip height
Hinge back and down while reaching and pushing the
bell behind you
Stand up swing
Repeat 8–10 times
A Simple Modification: Towel Swings
If you are having difficulty grabbing the bell with two
hands in front of your body because of your size, then
you can practice what are known as Towel Swings. You
will practice all of the beginning drills without the bell:
hinging; reaching back toward the seat of a chair with
your arms; standing up and contracting your glutes,
quads, and abs; and so on. You will practice Air Swings
and Timed Air Swings. Only when it comes time to
practice with the bell, will you do anything differently.
Just use a towel to extend your reach to the handle. All
this does is make it easier for you to use your hips. The
extended reach created by the towel will make your
hinging movement shallower, but this will create just as
good of a workout for you, if not better. The extension
makes it difficult to use your arms and forces you to use
your hips.
To perform a Towel Swing, thread a towel through the
handle of the bell and grip both ends of the towel as
close to the handle as possible.
Breathing
How you breathe during a kettlebell swing is very
important for your back health and safety. Proper
breathing will also allow for increased performance. The
technical term for breathing correctly is diaphragmatic
breathing, but for the sake of simplicity we’ll call it belly
breathing. Belly breathing is not only the right way to
breathe while doing your kettlebell workouts; it’s the
best way to breathe in everyday life.
The diaphragm is a large, umbrella shaped muscle right
under your rib cage. Most people are chest breathers,
meaning their breathing occurs up in the chest and
never dips down into the diaphragm. When you keep
breathing in your chest, you rob yourself of two-thirds of
the oxygen you could be getting. Oxygen does more
than just keep us alive—it energizes our cells and
tissues, and fuels our muscles, which is especially
important during a workout.
If you pay attention to your own breathing motion, you’ll
probably notice the movement stays in the chest as the
top of the shoulders (trapezius muscle, also known as
traps) literally lift the ribs off the lungs to let them take in
air. This is very inefficient, and it creates tight traps and
neck, causes headaches, and diminishes energy.
To breathe correctly, your belly should actually move out
when you inhale and in when you exhale. Think of how
little kids breathe when they are out of breath, and you
will know what belly breathing looks like. Their little
tummies go in and out like a bellows, while their
shoulders hardly move.
To learn to belly breathe, place your hand on your
stomach and as you inhale, make your belly button
move forward. As you exhale try to pull your belly button
toward your spine—you should feel the movement in
your belly; if you don’t, you are breathing from your
chest. Most people, especially women, find this quite
difficult at first, as so many are taught to never let their
stomachs out. This can lead to all kinds of problems,
such as lower back pain, tight trapezius muscles,
headaches, neck aches, and a general inability to
stabilize the core.
So go ahead—give yourself permission to stick your
stomach out. The good news is that letting your stomach
out on the inhalation will work your muscles in a way that
will tighten your waistline. These muscles (the
transversus abdominus) are like a muscular corset that
will tighten your waist on every breath.
Here’s a quick tip to make belly breathing easier: inhale
through your nose. If you do this, it is much easier to
breathe into the belly than if you try to do so through your
mouth. Place your hand on your stomach, and try this
exercise: breathe in through your nose as you make the
belly button move forward. Then, exhale through the
mouth as you pull the navel in.
During your kettlebell swings, inhale through the nose as
the bell swings behind you, and exhale through the
mouth on the upswing. Drawing your belly in and
exhaling at the top of the swing is good, but bracing
your abs is even better. To do this, imagine that
someone is trying to punch you in the stomach. The best
way to protect yourself from this punch is to “tighten up”
your abs—this is how you should brace your abdominal
muscles at the top of the swing. As you are bracing your
abs, you should be letting out a short, sharp exhale (you
can either hiss some air out or count your rep number).
Inhale through the nose for the next rep, and repeat.
Don’t worry—this will become perfectly natural in a very
short time.
If the concept of bracing your abs seems tough for you
to get, you can practice by doing something that may
sound a bit silly, but it’s the easiest way to understand
the feeling. So here it goes—I want you to punch
yourself in the stomach. Do it gently at first, and then
progressively hit a bit harder as you learn to tighten your
entire core just before your fist makes contact. Believe
me, this is the easiest and quickest way to learn how to
contract your muscles (and it’s definitely smarter than
having someone else punch you!).
One of the best parts of kettlebell swing training is all
the development you get in areas you don’t think are
being worked by the swing. Using the belly breathing
technique makes every move more efficient and will
ensure your abs get an amazing workout on each rep of
every swing. Just think: you’ll never have to do a single
crunch again.
You can practice belly breathing whenever and
wherever—in your office, while driving, while watching
TV. Start incorporating it on a regular basis so you
naturally begin to breathe this way in your workouts. This
breathing technique isn’t just an accessory to the swing;
it’s important for the protection of your lower back, and
by engaging the diaphragm, you will automatically
activate the abdominal muscles at the bottom of the
swing.
Contraction
At the top of every swing, you want to make sure to
tighten up your thighs, glutes, and abs; to grip the floor
with your feet; and to keep your shoulders pulled into the
sockets. When you incorporate each of these elements,
you accomplish several things that will be important to
creating the results you want (and to keeping your
workouts safe):
You ensure lower-body stability and make sure the bell
doesn’t pull you out of position.
You protect your knees, back, and shoulders by creating a
muscular contraction to stabilize the joints.
You create tone and strength in all of these areas.
If any of these areas are loose, you create a power
leakage (a term often used in the RKC). Since the body
is a linked and interconnected system, any leakage in
one area will reduce total body strength and prevent you
from developing a fully beneficial momentum. More
importantly, power leakages can also create
opportunities for injury—a body part that’s not fully
contracted is one with which you can easily lose
connection.
As you perform the swing, think about your hips and
glutes as the engines of the movement. The arms and
shoulders, on the other hand, are just tethered to the bell
and do not raise the weight, but they still must be
contracted and connected to the bell at all times.
One of the most basic mistakes beginners make is
quickly letting go of the glute contraction. You must keep
the buns tight for as long as possible, releasing the
contraction right before the bell swings between your
legs. Otherwise the weight of the bell will really want to
pull you forward. Squeeze your glutes at the top of the
swing, and keep them tight for as long as possible.
To practice this, a good exercise is one similar to a
bridge pose in yoga. Lie on the ground on your back
and lift your hips up toward the ceiling by tightening your
glute muscles. Hold this position, squeezing your glutes
and keeping your hips lifted. Now stand up and perform
10 swings recreating the feeling of that hip extension
every time you stand up with the bell.
Tightening the front of the thighs at the top of the swing
will allow you to safely straighten the legs fully. If you
don’t tighten the thighs, the leg can still straighten, but it
won’t have the muscular contraction to keep it safe. You
want to straighten the leg, not hyperextend it, so be sure
to tighten your thighs. This will also give your thighs
fantastic muscle tone and strength without ever doing
squats.
If you have knee issues and can’t squat, you can still
swing safely and easily, and strengthen the knees and
legs at the same time. Swings are perhaps the most
knee-friendly, full-body exercise a person can do at any
age.
Contracting the shoulder into the socket is vital for
shoulder health and a powerful swing. When you come
out of the bottom position, you will find your shoulder is
already perfectly where it should be. The only reason it
might come forward is if you let your arms power the
ascent instead of the hips. Keep the shoulders tightly in
their sockets as you let your hips and glutes propel the
bell upward. Remember, you are swinging the bell, not
lifting it.
An easy way to feel if your shoulders are following
proper form is to feel what it’s like when they are not.
Extend your arms out in front of you about shoulder
height, and lift your shoulders up toward your ears (out
of the socket), now pull them down and back away from
your ears (in the socket). Pulling your shoulders down
and back away from your ears automatically keeps your
shoulder packed.
While it’s important to keep all of this in mind, I don’t
want you to think too much while you’re swinging. When
it comes to contraction, the important point is to stay
connected to your body and muscles as you go through
the swing. You accomplish this by simply paying
attention. This process is about transforming your body,
but it all starts by opening the lines of communication.
With each swing, think about the contractions of your
muscles as an act of squeezing the weight off of you—
I’m sure that will help you feel connected to the
movements! No matter what, remember that you want to
control the kettlebell; you don’t want it to control you.
The Difference Between Soreness and
Pain
The day after your first kettlebell workout, you will
probably experience soreness in your inner thighs like
you’ve never felt before. Don’t worry—it’s normal and
it’s unavoidable. When you swing the weight between
your legs, it stretches those muscles in a way that
they’re not stretched by regular activities, even other
exercise activities. The good news is that once you get
through that break-in period, you won’t get very sore
again anywhere on your body. Think of this initial
soreness as a rite of passage into the Kettlebell Swing
Club.
The workload in a kettlebell swing is so evenly
distributed throughout your entire body that no single
area gets isolated or overloaded, which is why, other
than in your inner thighs, you don’t feel much soreness
after your first workout. The even distribution is also why
your perception of your efforts during your workout is
lower than in traditional methods—your whole body is
helping, so it doesn’t seem like any one part of you is
doing all the work. Since everything is being put to work
during the swing, you can burn an outrageous number of
calories and change your body rapidly with super short
workouts.
However, it is still common to feel some soreness when
you are beginning or increasing the intensity of an
exercise routine. It is important that you not confuse the
effort of exercising your muscles, heart, and lungs hard
with pain in joints or muscles. They are completely
different. Taking your body to a new level of fitness and
into a reinvented existence altogether requires that you
push past old limitations, which is rarely comfortable.
While it will be uncomfortable—your body might feel a
bit tired and your muscles tender for a day or two—this
is a different sensation than what you would experience
from injury-related pain, which is sharp and long-lasting.
As you begin to reconnect with your body, you’ll become
more adept at gauging the difference. When it comes to
injuries, there are a few red flags you should watch out
for—areas where you should not be feeling much
soreness, if any at all.
Warning Signs and Quick Fixes
As you perform more swings, I want you to be able to
self-correct when you feel something is off with the
movement. Here are some warning signs you might
encounter if your form isn’t quite right, and some simple
adjustments to fix it.
Warning: Shoulder Pain
When I say shoulder pain, I’m including the trapezius
muscles, which people often incorrectly identify as their
shoulder. Your traps are directly to the side of the neck,
while the shoulders are the muscles at the end of your
collarbones. Either way, neither of these parts of your
body should hurt from swinging a kettlebell. If you’re
experiencing pain in your shoulders or traps, you’re
using your arms instead of your hips to pull the weight
out of the bottom position.
Quick Fix: Try a shallow swing just below hip level,
make sure to keep your elbows straight as you go
through your repetitions, and use your hips to create the
movement of the swing, not your arms. When the bell
goes up, your shoulders come down.
Warning: Lower Back Pain
Your lower back should not hurt from swinging a
kettlebell. If it does, check to make sure you’re keeping
a straight spine (see the straight spine section in The
Learn Phase). If you’re not maintaining the four natural
curves of the spine, you are letting the lower back round,
which is the main cause of any lower back pain.
Quick Fix: Maintain a slight arch, not a rounding, in the
lower back throughout the entire movement and use the
hips to create the swing.
Ensuring your hamstrings are flexible and mobile will
help as well, as tight hamstrings will pull on the pelvis
and make it harder to maintain a solid back arch. To
stretch out your hamstrings, try this (you can use a belt if
you don’t have a strap):
Warning: Knee Pain
The knees should always track the toes. This means
that whatever direction your toes are pointed when
you’re swinging is the direction your knees should be
pointing as well. Your knees and feet should be pointed
straight ahead, or at the most at twenty degrees
outward.
Quick Fix: Don’t let your knees cave in, and make sure
to keep your feet flat on the floor the entire time—don’t
let yourself go up on your toes or let the big toes come
off the ground. To make sure you are hinging and not
squatting, pay attention to where the swing breaks—it
should happen at the hips, and not at the knees.
Stretching out your quads can also help make sure your
legs are ready for the swing. Try this stretch:
The Kettlebell Triangle
The Chair Hinge and Chair Hike Drills should have
taught you the precise path your hands should follow
during the swing. When you do the swing correctly, this
means your hands should pass right below your groin
area, and I mean right below. When you have a moving
kettlebell in your hands, you now have a combined
center of gravity between you and the bell. Your center
is your belly button. The bell’s center, because of the
handle, is somewhere near the top of the ball of iron.
The combined center, the one between you and the bell,
is in the triangle created by your groin area and your
pubic bone—what I call the kettlebell triangle. If you feel
like you are being pulled forward and down by the bell,
then you have simply strayed too far away from your
center of gravity, or the kettlebell triangle.
When you swing the kettlebell, you should be re-creating
the motion of reaching back and up to touch the chair; if
you follow this arc, you will ensure your hands stay within
the triangle. It is most common to be pulled away from
the triangle when you try swinging the bell with one
hand, but it can happen in the Two-Hand Swing as well.
This is an example of when it would be okay to use a
mirror to help you correct this mistake—stand in front of
one and practice to make sure you’re keeping the bell
at the top part of the triangle. Remember to only use the
mirror to make form corrections and refinements—once
you’ve got the motion and positioning down, move the
mirror out of the way so you can focus completely on
your body instead of on a reflection.
A Final Tip
Before you start the workouts, I want you to remind you
to really focus on your body and how the swing feels.
Ever since I started teaching others how to swing, I’ve
noticed that the biggest mistake people make is
overthinking and not feeling the movement of the swing.
I’ve certainly given you plenty to think about in this
chapter, but I don’t want you to get lost in your head or to
feel overwhelmed by the details. When you try the
swing, I think you’ll be surprised to discover how easy it
is; let the details refine as you improve your skills, but
don’t be afraid to lift your eyes off the page and get
comfortable with the swing through repetitions.
9 The Swing Workouts
Now that you have been a student of the
swing and have put in your time in
rehearsal, it’s time to step onto the big
stage of the workouts—this is where
you’ll really ramp up the caloric burn and
body transformation. As I guide you
through the workouts in this next phase,
Practice, I want you to think of them as
recipes for success.
In each of the different types of workouts I’m going to
offer here, I’ll give you a brief description of the workout
structure, then the specifics relating to reps, sets, and
rest time—these figures are the measurements I’ve
worked with over the years and have refined to the point
where they create the perfect workout. Initially, I
modified the workouts with the purpose of progressively
challenging my body, but once I started teaching
classes and instructing others, I really focused also on
making the workouts fun—that is, I developed ways for
people to perform extraordinary workloads in a very
short amount of time. The fun comes through just a bit of
deception—you won’t even realize how much you’re
getting done in just thirty minutes or less (of course, until
you see the results in the mirror). As you become more
familiar with the workouts, I want you to think of them like
measurements for a favorite recipe—they can be
manipulated and customized to better suit your taste or
fitness level.
I use what’s known as interval training to create most of
my workouts for The Swing! Interval training is a method
that alternates levels of output, most often going from
bursts of intense effort to a resting or low-intensity
interval. This type of training is incredibly effective at
improving your body strength and increasing your
cardiovascular endurance.
The first goal of timed interval swing training is what I
call equal work to equal rest. This means if you swing
for thirty seconds, then you rest for thirty seconds. The
number of reps you do is not as important as
establishing the rest it takes you to recover and swing
more reps. The stronger you get and the more your
cardiovascular endurance improves, the shorter amount
of rest you will require. Equal work to equal rest is the
baseline level of cardio endurance required to move
from the Practice phase to the Training phase. It may
take weeks if not months to establish this ratio of work
to rest, but the good news is that your progress is so
individual that you need not compare your ability to
anyone else’s—it’s based solely on your last workout.
I’m going to teach you how to work your way up to equal
work to equal rest with something I call On the Minute
training—this is a simple way to use a set time frame to
organize your workouts.
The Practice Phase: Workouts #1–5
In this phase, I’m going to have you perform your
workouts on the minute, which means that every set will
start at the beginning of every minute, or when the
second hand reaches the twelve on a clock. You will
start one set of swings at the top of each minute,
regardless of how many reps you’ve completed or how
much rest you’ve gotten. On the Minute (OTM) training is
an uncomplicated way of structuring your workouts
because you don’t have to time your reps or your rest
period; you only have to time the intervals.
We will be using one-minute intervals. Remember,
within each one-minute interval, you incorporate work
and rest. The only move we will be using in the first five
workouts is the Two-Hand Swing. At any point, though,
you can opt for Air Swings if you can’t continue to swing
the kettlebell—the important part is to keep swinging.
On the Minute Workout #1
Perform 10 swing reps for 5 sets OTM. Remember, this
means that you will complete 5 sets with a clock with a
second hand nearby—each time you’ve completed 10
Two-Hand Swings, look up at the clock and see how
much time is left to “finish the minute.” It should be
around forty-five seconds, give or take five seconds;
this will all depend on your ability to set the pace of 10
reps per fifteen seconds.
After your first 5 sets, it’s time to evaluate. Did you get
too much rest or not enough rest? If you felt it was too
much rest, you can move right on to OTM Workout #2. If
you did not get enough rest, decrease your number of
reps to 8 and repeat 5 more sets on the minute. Now
reevaluate. If you feel like you got too much rest,
increase your reps back up to 10. If you feel like you
didn’t get enough rest, add an extra minute rest at this
time (giving you a rest time of one minute and forty-five
seconds) and then decrease to 5 or 6 reps. If you felt it
was just right, continue on with 8–10 reps and repeat 5
more sets. It is not uncommon to have to decrease the
rep count in the first couple of workouts, but your cardio
fitness will improve quickly with every consistent
workout.
For OTM Workouts #1–5, you might find it helpful to
keep track of the number of sets you’ve completed and
what kind of work-to-rest ratio you are keeping. A workto-rest ratio is simply the amount of time you spent
doing work, or swinging, and the amount time you spent
resting. It doesn’t have to be exact—just keep an eye on
the average for each group of 5 sets of 10 reps. Since
you practiced pacing your Air Swings, you should
average around fifteen seconds for every set of 10
swings, followed by forty-five seconds of rest. This is a
1:3 work-to-rest ratio.
I’m going to be using shorthand when giving you your
workout instructions, as it will be much easier for you
when you get to the more advanced workouts. You will
find a complete key in Shorthand Key, but this is the
only one you will need to know until Workout #6 (it’s
pretty obvious):
2-hd sw = two-hand swings
On the Minute Workout #2
This workout is 15 sets. You will start with 10 reps for
the first 5 sets, then you add 1 rep each set until you
reach 15 reps. This is the goal, but it’s important to
gauge how you feel—did you reach your limit at 12 or
14? Once you find the number of reps that creates the
ideal workout for you, repeat that number until you’ve
completed 15 sets total.
On the Minute Workout #3
This workout is 20 sets. You will start with 10 reps,
increasing 1 swing per set until you reach 20 reps.
Once you find the number of reps that creates the right
challenge for you, repeat that number until you’ve
completed 20 sets total.
Continue with Workout #3 (again beginning with 1 set of
10, increasing 1 rep at a time) until you’ve reached the
fitness level where you can complete 20 reps within
thirty seconds, which will mean you’re getting thirty
seconds of work to thirty seconds of rest. Once you’ve
reached that point, let me wish you congratulations
because you have reached equal work to equal rest!
This is a great accomplishment in itself because it
represents great progress in your cardio endurance.
Don’t celebrate for too long, though—if you want to
achieve your best body, you’ve got to continue pushing
progress by upping the challenge. With that, let’s move
on to Workout #4.
On the Minute Workout #4
We’re going to increase the challenge here by starting
with 12 reps, and then we’ll increase each set at first by
1 rep, then by 2, and we will end with 10–15 sets of 20
reps.
On the Minute Workout #5
This is your last OTM workout. Great job so far—you’re
probably noticing amazing changes in your body,
including increased cardio endurance, significant
weight loss, and impressive muscle shape and tone.
How quickly the muscle tone reveals itself will depend
on how much weight you have to lose—remember, as
your weight drops, so does your body fat, and getting
that out of the way will allow your muscle tone to really
show off.
With this final OTM workout, you’ll start with 12 reps and
increase each following set by 2 reps until you reach 20
reps. Then you will complete 10–20 sets of 20 reps, and
finish with 20 reps or any of the previous rep counts (the
most you can do) for 10 more sets. With this last group
of sets, just do your best each set. If you find you’re not
getting enough rest, drop back down to 12 reps and
work your way up again. The most important point is to
finish with 10 sets, regardless of the rep count.
Just Keep Swinging
The important part to remember for all these workouts is
that you can always work at your own pace. In other
words, if you need more rest, then take it. All swing
workouts can be customized to your level of fitness.
Don’t worry that you are not doing enough. If you are
doing your swing workout consistently—that’s the key—
you will improve quickly, and you may even experience
your cardio endurance has doubled from one workout to
the next. The results and the physical progress will
happen quickly.
The other benefit of your kettlebell swing training is that
it doesn’t set you up to get into the bad habit of
comparing yourself to others. Everyone has a unique
starting point. Even if you have the same amount of
weight to lose as someone else, your cardiovascular
fitness could be greater or lesser than that person’s. I
often use the analogy of drinking alcohol. If you don’t
drink alcohol often, then you may feel tipsy after one
glass. Whereas someone who drinks alcohol on a
regular basis probably needs three or more glasses
before he feels the effects. Neither one is better—
they’re both getting tipsy. I may be able to swing for
minutes at a time, but your 10 swings are doing you
every bit of good as my minutes of swings—it’s all
relative.
You may be able to perform 20 swing reps easily now,
but how many sets of 20 can you complete with equal
rest before tiring out? As I mentioned, the rep count is
not as important as how many sets of reps you can
complete using the equal-work-to-equal-rest ratio. The
goal is to progressively increase the number of
consecutive intervals you can do.
Stop! Read This Before You Move On
At this point, you have established two important skills:
1) You can complete 10 reps per fifteen seconds, or 20
reps per thirty seconds, and 2) you can complete your
reps with equal work to equal rest, which translates to
being able to work 10 reps and rest into a thirty-second
interval, or 20 reps and rest into a one-minute interval.
To extend a bit further, this means you should be able to
complete 5 sets of 10 Two-Hand Swing reps in twoand-a-half minutes (5 sets × 30 seconds each = 2.5
minutes total), or 5 sets of 20 Two-Hand Swing reps in
five minutes (5 sets × one-minute each = five minutes).
All the workouts moving forward will assume that you’ve
achieved this level of skill with your kettlebell workouts. If
you haven’t gotten to this point yet, keep going with
Workouts #1–5, and you will get here—I promise!
The Train Phase: Workouts #6–13
In my opinion, the Two-Hand Swing is the Holy Grail. In
terms of difficulty, it is the hardest to train, but it’s the
simplest to learn. Since both arms are tethered to the
bell and involved at all times, there is no rest, but the
strength and balance you get from using two hands
allows you to safely swing heavier weights. At this point,
you could opt to continue to train with just the Two-Hand
Swing by working your way up to 40 consecutive reps,
1–2 swings at a time. You could also increase the
weight of the bell for some or all of your sets. However,
there are convincing reasons to incorporate moves like
the One-Hand Swing.
The One-Hand Swing can give at least one side of your
body a bit of rest while you keep working with the other.
With the Two-Hand Swing your forearms and grip never
get a break, which can make it difficult to swing past
20–40 continuous reps. Adding in the One-Hand Swing
also gives you variety and helps keep your workouts
interesting as your skill with the swing progresses.
In this next phase, Train, you’ll discover Workouts #6–
13, which will incorporate variations of the One-Hand
Swing and plenty of different combinations. First things
first though—let’s get you comfortable swinging with
one arm. Ready to learn it? Let’s get to it.
One-Hand Swing
The One-Hand Swing is an asymmetrical movement
that forces the body to use 50 percent more muscle. On
the flip side of this, the bell will feel about fifty percent
heavier because the balance of the weight is off center
(see Selecting Your Kettlebell for weight selection for
the One-Hand Swing). This is why it’s especially
important to get the movement before putting the bell
into motion.
To help you establish good from and familiarity with the
motion, I want you to revisit the Single Swing Drill (see
The Single Swing Drill), but this time I want you to do it
with one hand at a time. Don’t worry about your free
hand or arm for now; I’ll instruct you on what to do with it
once you’ve got the concept of the One-Hand Swing
down. With the kettlebell out in front of you, hinge back
and down and start with your right hand touching the
handle (don’t pick it up). Push your right arm back and
up as if you were going to touch the seat of a chair; now
stand up swing, hinge, reach back, pretend to touch the
chair, and stand up swing. Switch and perform this drill
with your left hand and left arm. Now you’re ready to
pick up the bell.
Start with your feet hip distance apart with the bell about
six inches out in front of you. Hinge down and back and
place one hand firmly on the handle of the bell. You will
naturally gravitate toward your dominant side—this is
fine, but you’re going to have to do both sides
eventually!
Just like with the Single Swing Drill, hike the bell back
and up as if you were trying to touch the chair seat
behind you.
Stand up swing, contracting your quads and glutes, and
sharply exhale at the top.
Push the bell back behind you.
Stand up swing.
Repeat for a total of 5 swings, and then with control,
place the bell down in front of you where you began.
Switch hands while the bell is on the ground in front of
you. Perform 5 swings with the opposite arm.
Practice One-Hand Swings only a couple of more times
on each side, placing the bell down between sets of 5
reps. Now move on to the next drill.
Touch the Handle Drill
It’s time to put the free hand and arm to work. This next
drill will not only teach you what to do with your free hand
and arm, but it will also set you up to switch hands in
midair. Sound like fun? It is! Just like when we used the
Timed Air Swings to get you ready for the speed of the
swing, the Touch the Handle Drill will get you used to the
timing of the hand-to-hand switch. The kettlebell is
actually floating at only one brief point of the swing, and
that’s at the very top of each rep. Once you hit that point,
you’ll need to be ready to transfer hands, which isn’t
difficult but does require some practice and planning.
Place the bell about six inches out in front of you. With
your feet hip distance apart, hinge down and back and
place one hand firmly on the handle of the bell. Hike the
bell back and up as if you were trying to touch the chair
seat behind you.
Stand up swing, and this time touch the handle of the
bell with your free hand as the bell swings forward out in
front of you.
Push the bell back behind you, and swing your free arm
back much like a speed skater does.
Stand up swing; touch the handle with your free hand.
Repeat for 5–10 swings, touching the handle with your
free hand each time. Then, with control, place the bell
down in front of you.
Switch arms and repeat.
Coach Yourself: You can coach yourself through this
drill by repeating the steps out loud. It should sound like
this: “Swing touch one, swing touch two, swing touch
three, swing touch four, swing touch five, put the bell
down.” Switch the bell to your other arm, and then
repeat.
Practice this way for a few more sets before attempting
to switch hands midair. You should start to feel the
movement and how important it is to keep your free arm
swinging and in sync with your weighted arm. You can
count this practice as a workout itself, or you can add on
some of your previous Two-Hand Swings for 10–15
sets of 10–20 reps, equal work to rest.
The Touch the Handle Drill is a perfect way to practice
the timing of the transfer, but it also has additional
benefits. By getting into the habit of swinging your free
arm back and forth, you’re using up to 35 percent more
power (i.e., burning more calories and building more
strength). It’s also part of the natural gait cycle, like
running or walking, and it incorporates the normal
thoracic spinal rotation. Not to mention the fact that it
feels amazing and athletic, and it creates beautiful
artistry in motion. I’ve gotten into the habit of always
swinging my free arm for all these reasons—it feels
incredibly natural and powerful.
Hand-to-Hand Switch
Now you’re going to learn how to transfer the bell in
midair. For obvious reasons, do not practice actually
transferring hands in front of a mirror. Keep in mind that
the transfer happens on the way up, not on the way
down.
Get into position for your one-arm swings. Complete 4
reps with one arm, touching the handle with your free
arm each time.
On the fifth rep, as your free hand comes toward the
handle, pass it over the top of the weighted hand, and
then release the weighted hand as you allow the bell to
continue its upward path into the top hand. When the
bell starts its descent, it should already be in your other
hand.
Complete 4 more reps with this opposite arm, switching
back on five. Then, with control, place the bell down in
front of you.
Coach Yourself: Say it out loud as you train: “Swing
touch one, swing touch two, swing touch three, swing
touch four, switch hands on five, swing touch one, swing
touch two, swing touch three, swing touch four, switch
back on five.”
Since you’ll be completing 5 reps on each side, this is
how these one-arm swings will appear in the workouts:
5 R/5 L = 5 One-Hand Swings/Touches right (weight in
right hand, touching with left hand), switch on five, plus 5
One-Hand Swings/Touches left, switch back on five,
which equals 10 reps.
5 R/5 L × 2 = 5 One-Hand Swings/Touches right, switch
on five, plus 5 One-Hand Swings/touches left, switch
back on five, repeated twice without rest, which equals
20 reps.
You’ll notice that this next batch of workouts is written
out a bit differently than the previous workouts. That’s
because it’s time to put all the skills you’ve learned to
work—now you’re going to train the kettlebell swing. I
write my personal workouts this way because it allows
me to see the combinations better and helps me see
what comes next with just a quick glance.
The time shown in parentheses after each exercise and
number of sets is the total time, meaning it includes
both work and rest (see Stop! Read This Before You
Move On for more details). These workouts will
incorporate the other shorthand terms you’ve seen, plus
another one that indicates a combination of two moves:
+ = the plus sign means you’ve reached a combination
and you should continue right into the next exercise
without any rest.
For example, 10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L means you should
perform 10 Two-Hand Swings and then go right into 5
One-Hand Swings/Touches right, switch on five, plus 5
One-Hand Swings/Touches left.
The Swing Workouts #1–15: Shorthand Key
Refer back to this key for my shorthand version of all the
exercises we’ll be using in your workouts.
2-hd sw = Two-Hand swings
5 One-Hand Swings/Touches right,
5R/5L = switch on five, plus 5 One-Hand
Swings/Touches left, switch back on
five, which equals 10 reps.
5 One-Hand Swings, Touches right,
switch on five, plus 5 One-Hand
5R/5L × 2 = Swings, Touches left, switch back on
five, repeated twice without rest,
which equals 20 reps.
the plus sign means you’ve reached
+ = a combination and you should
continue right into the next exercise
without any rest.
1 swing/1 transfer, which equals 2
SW/TR = reps; 10 Swing Transfers equals 20
reps.
TR = transfer
WORKOUT #6
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
20 2-hd sw × 5 sets (5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
20 2-hd sw × 5 sets (5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 2 × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
Total Workout Time = 25 minutes
WORKOUT #7
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
20 2-hd sw × 5 sets (5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 2 × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 5 sets (5 minutes)
5 R/5 L + 10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (5 minutes)
Total Workout Time = 25 minutes
Swing Transfers (SW/TR)
Now that you are comfortable switching every 5 reps, you
are ready to make the transfers, or switches, happen more
frequently. Practice by completing one swing/touch right,
and then transferring the bell to your left hand on the next
upswing. Repeat on the other side. Now put them together:
one swing/touch, one transfer; one swing/touch, one
transfer; one swing/touch, one transfer … and just keep
going! Rest after you get the hang of it. Right now, your rep
count doesn’t matter; getting the pattern down is what’s
most important.
Coach Yourself: Say it out loud as you train: “One touch,
one transfer, one touch, one transfer.”
It’s important to point out that for every Swing Transfer, you
are completing 2 reps. To make sure you train right and left
evenly, all Swing Transfer sets will be at least 20 reps (10
Swing Transfers = 20 reps). Swing Transfers will be
indicated as follows in the workouts:
SW/TR = one swing/one transfer, which equals 2
reps;
10 Swing Transfers equals 20 reps
WORKOUT #8
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
10 SW/TR × 5 sets (5 minutes)
20 2-hd sw × 5 sets (5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 2 × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 SW/TR × 5 sets (5 minutes)
Total Workout Time = 25 minutes
WORKOUT #9
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
10 SW/TR × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 SW/TR × 5 sets (10
minutes)
Total Workout Time = 25 minutes
Transfers (TR)
You are a pro now! Next it’s time to practice transferring the
bell every rep, but I want you to practice a few sets with one
touch first, like you did for the Swing Transfers.
Coach Yourself: Say it out loud as you train: “One
swing/touch, swing, transfer at the top, swing, transfer at the
top, swing, transfer” … and keep going just like that.
Transfers will be indicated as follows in the workouts:
TR = transfer
WORKOUT #10
10 2-hd sw × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 SW/TR × 5 sets (5 minutes)
10 TR × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 10 SW/TR + 10 TR × 5 sets (10
minutes)
5 R/5 L × 5 sets (2.5 minutes)
Total Workout = 30 minutes
WORKOUT #11
10 2-hd sw × 2 sets (1 minute)
5 R/5 L × 4 sets (2 minutes)
10 TR × 6 sets (3 minutes)
20 2-hd sw × 2 sets (2 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 2 × 4 sets (8 minutes)
40 TR × 6 sets (12 minutes)
10 2-hd sw × 2 sets (2 minutes)
Total Workout = 30 minutes
WORKOUT #12
10 2-hd sw × 2 sets (1 minute)
5 R/5 L × 2 sets (1 minute)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2 sets (2 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2
sets (4 minutes)
20 2-hd sw × 2 sets (2 minutes)
5 R/5 L × 2 × 2 sets (2 minutes)
20 TR × 2 sets (2 minutes)
20 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2 × 2 sets (4 minutes)
20 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2 + 20 TR × 2 sets (6
minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 TR × 2 sets (3
minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2 sets (2 minutes)
10 2-hd sw × 2 sets (1 minute)
Total Workout = 30 minutes
WORKOUT #13
10 2-hd sw × 2 sets (1 minute)
5 R/5 L × 2 × 2 sets (2 minutes)
10 2-hd sw × 2 sets (1 minute)
20 TR × 2 sets (2 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2 sets (2 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 10 TR × 2 sets (2 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 2
sets (4 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 10 TR + 10 2-hd sw + 10 TR × 2
sets (4 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L × 3 sets (1.5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 10 TR × 3 sets (1.5 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 TR × 2 sets (3
minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 2-hd sw + 10 TR × 2
sets (4 minutes)
10 2-hd sw + 5 R/5 L + 10 2-hd sw + 10 TR × 2
sets (2 minutes)
Total Workout = 30 minutes
Congratulations! You have reached the magic of the twominute set!
The Magical Two-Minute Set
You have made such a significant accomplishment in
getting to this point! You’ve already arrived at
extraordinary; now it’s just a matter of pushing yourself
to stay on top. I’m sure you have seen an incredible
body transformation already, but this final workout will
challenge you yet again.
When I first started doing these extended sets, Mark
noticed the amazing workout I was getting and named
them aerobic threshold sets. He noted that in just two
minutes of work, I was experiencing the anaerobic and
aerobic benefits of both sprinting and running a
marathon.
Both of these final workouts are designed to get you
progressively to the two-minute set. At this point, taking
equal rest is not important since your cardio endurance
has increased and you need less rest. Once you reach
40 reps with a one-minute rest period and you don’t
need more than a full minute to recover, move on to the
next set. Since your rest time could vary, I’m including
these last two workouts in a journal format—use them to
record rest period changes, as even these will start to
shorten. By the time you get to the two-minute set, you
will be working a 2:1 work-to-rest ratio.
The Unbeatable Weight-Loss Combo
—Anaerobic and Aerobic
By Mark Reifkind
What exactly happens in your body when you perform
multiple two-minute sets with the kettlebell? You are
working at the crossroads of both the anaerobic
(oxygen independent) and the aerobic (oxygen
dependent) systems, and getting the best of both.
Training with this combination of energy systems is
why high intensity kettlebell training was proven to be
able to burn 1,200 calories per hour.
When you complete sets that range from fifteen
seconds to two minutes, you are doing anaerobic
exercise, and the primary source of energy is sugars,
which are drawn from both the muscles and the blood.
When you complete sets, or perform any intense
activity, from two minutes up to twenty minutes, your
body pulls more and more energy from fat. Although it
might seem better to go longer to draw more energy
from fat, training the body to burn sugar for fuel has
many advantages. For one, training off of stored
muscle sugars (also known as glycogen) creates a
demand for the body to store future intake of
carbohydrates in the muscles as fuel instead of in the
fat.
The relatively short sets (I know—they don’t feel short)
you’re completing also allow for higher training loads
and intensities, which work much harder to activate
fast-twitch fibers. These are the sprint and strength
fibers of the body, and they respond well to harder work
and are the ones responsible for increased muscle
tone. You train these with anaerobic exercise.
When you perform slow-training, or aerobic, activities
like long-distance running, your body uses the slow-
twitch or endurance fibers to keep going. While these
muscles can perform for a long time, they’re stubborn
when it comes to increasing in tone or size.
When your kettlebell training reaches the level of twominute sets, you will be working just short enough to
keep a high degree of fast-twitch fibers involved and
just long enough to start tapping in to the aerobic
system, or slow-twitch fibers. This means you get the
best of both worlds: just enough intensity to really
develop the muscles and just enough time to really
tap in to fat stores as well. You won’t find this powerful
combination in any other single exercise.
Continuing Your Progress
Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished to this
point. If you want to continue to strengthen your body
and push your results, I invite you to visit my website at
giryastrength.com for access to additional kettlebell
swing workouts. It’s part of who you are now—keep up
the amazing work, and know that every day you’re
swinging, I’m right there with you.
PART THREE
Food
10 Learning How to Feed You
If your goal is to change your body, then you
have to change your eating habits. It sounds
obvious, but unless you really take ownership of
that change, the transformation won’t last. The
best way to do this is to connect with the foods
you put into your body by learning how to feed
yourself.
I’m not referring to just the act of putting food in your mouth—I’m
talking about feeding and nourishing your body in a way that
makes it flourish and function at its best. If someone else makes
and/or prepares your food, then you are not feeding yourself; you
are relying on others and blindly trusting them with your most
precious possession—your body.
When I first approached creating dietary guidelines for myself, I
focused on the goal of creating momentum. Because I was trying
to win a bet, I didn’t have time to wait around for results—I wanted
to jump on the fast track to weight loss. At the same time, I still had
the mind of an overeater, and I was not about to starve myself to
lose weight. So I came up with two core principles around which I
would craft my new way of eating: 1) I had to become intimate with
real foods—this meant learning how to cook and connecting to the
process of making food for myself (by extension, this also meant
no more eating out and ignoring or guessing what ingredients or
calories were in my meals), and 2) I had to eat more vegetables
than anything else—this would allow me to eat a lot of food while
still drastically cutting my calorie consumption.
I’m going to share with you how I took these two principles and
turned them into a way to eat for weight loss. Like with your swing
workouts, my goal is to inspire you to create a skill and to take
responsibility for creating your beautiful, strong, and fit body from
the inside out.
Hello, My Name Is Real Food
I changed by body by getting reacquainted with real foods:
vegetables, fruits, meats, beans, and grains, you know, those little
things called ingredients that you make into meals. If you’re living
off of packaged meals or fast foods, you’re not being fueled by
real, live nutrients. When you eat foods that are designed to be
preserved, your body has to work really hard to break down all the
chemicals just to get to the itty bitty nutritional elements that may be
hidden in there, if any exist at all. It’s kind of like dumping the
contents of a landfill into your body and hoping it finds a few leaves
of lettuce in there somewhere. We were not meant to exist on
things that only resemble real food.
Real food is amazing because it’s not calorie dense; it’s incredibly,
wildly delicious; and there are endless ways to eat it. I didn’t start
out thinking that way, though. I was a non-cook, but I knew
somewhere deep inside that it was important to know how to make
foods for myself and for my family. I figured since I loved food so
much, I could find a way to love cooking it. I did find a way, and it
has honestly turned out to be one of the greatest and most
rewarding discoveries of my life.
Tracy’s Food Rule #1: Diets Work
Why is it said that diets don’t work? Seventy percent of the adult
female population and 30 percent of all adult males have been
on one, but it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s the Atkins diet, a
low-fat diet, or even a Master Cleanse of only lemon, water,
cayenne pepper, and maple syrup; people will try almost
anything in a desperate attempt to shed a few pounds—
everything except eating right.
A diet stops working when the diet stops, and most dieters
choose the wrong diet, and therefore stop dieting. Few dieters
maintain their weight loss, and they often end up heavier than
they were before they started dieting. So how do you avoid that
fate? Don’t look at dieting as a vacation from overeating, look at
overeating as a vacation from dieting. Learn how to feed yourself,
and follow the simple rule of V-First (see Meal Composition 101).
Understanding Calories
Calories are units of energy, or fuel, that your body uses to function.
You burn calories all day long, even when you’re just sitting on the
couch or brushing your teeth—keeping your bodily systems running
burns calories. If you eat more calories than your body naturally
burns (your basal metabolic rate), then you gain weight; if you eat
less, you lose weight. If you add in exercise, you increase the
number of calories burned. And—here’s where your body really
starts to change—if you burn more calories and eat less, well then,
your weight loss increases. It is a simple rule; one that’s based on
pure science. The good news is, science is on your side—it’s up to
you to start using it to your advantage.
Tracy’s Food Rule #2: You Can’t Out-Train
What You Eat
There is no true equal exchange when it comes to diet and
exercise. If you eat a doughnut and then work out an hour later,
your body doesn’t go straight for those calories like a laser and
burn them off. Too often people exercise to make up for what
they’ve eaten, or they eat something and think, “Oh, I’ll just burn
those calories off !” This is not just a slippery slope; it’s the first
sign of an avalanche. If you ask people who have successfully
maintained their weight loss if they exercise just to burn calories,
they will tell you no. When you start swinging a kettlebell, I want
you to think about it as creating and improving a skill, and you
should look at making your own meals in the same way. When
you begin to make your own meals, you aren’t just developing the
skill of feeding yourself, but you are also establishing a skill to
create and re-create, and to consciously choose and bring to life
the body you want. I want you to think about feeding your body
and not just your mouth (this doesn’t mean the foods you’ll be
eating aren’t going to taste great—it’s just a thought adjustment
that will help you create a more positive and productive
relationship with food).
If you’re ready to lose weight, it’s time to admit that you’re eating
too much, or in other words, consuming too many calories.
Whether it’s coming from healthful foods or junk foods is irrelevant
at this point. So let’s get to work on identifying the number of
calories you need to eat to end up at the body weight you were
meant to live at; how fast you get there is up to you.
Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
A weight-loss diet is a food-and-eating plan that involves eating
fewer calories than you need to maintain your current body
weight. If you weigh more than you want to weigh, then you must
eat fewer calories than you take in to change this result.
Typically when we lose weight, the loss comes from water, fat, and
muscle. There is a popular belief out there that we should want to
try and keep all of the muscle and lose only fat. I have news for
you: when you are at an unhealthy body weight, you can afford to
lose a little bit of all of these components. Worrying about only
losing one type of weight is, well, ridiculous at this point. Can you
afford to be picky? First things first—get the weight off. All of it.
Once you start to lose weight, the majority of the weight you are
losing is in fact body fat.
A fat-loss diet, on the other hand, is a diet that focuses
specifically on only losing body fat. Talk about scientific. It’s
usually a high-protein diet that focuses on creating the smallest
amount of regular weight loss in the hope of conserving muscle
mass. The end goal is to strip the fat to reveal lean muscle.
While this may sound like a great goal, it’s simply too specific for
someone who wants to lose 20 pounds or more. It’s even more of
a senseless strategy if you’re not doing anything to build or keep
muscle. So if you’re goal is to lose weight, follow the weight-loss
principles featured on these pages—they won’t fail you (unless
you fail them).
I’m going to give you a calculation that will provide an approximate
number of calories to eat each day based on your goal (assuming
your goal is weight loss): take your ideal weight and multiply by 12.
This is the approximate number of calories you should be eating
each day.
Based on this calculation, if you are a woman who wants to weigh
135 pounds, you would aim to consume about 1,600 calories per
day to lose weight; a man wanting to weigh 170 pounds would eat
about 2,000 calories. I’ve estimated these calorie counts based on
the lower side of the scale, which you should always do to allow for
mistakes—this is what I refer to as a little extra mental insurance.
So here’s the question—if you eat the number of calories based on
this calculation, will you lose weight? Absolutely. Will you lose
weight quickly? Not necessarily. I would say those are numbers you
can follow if you want to achieve what I will call average weight
loss. If what you want to achieve is amazing weight loss, I have
some other numbers for you to consider.
Here’s why I think 1,600–2,000 calories is simply too high of a
range for anyone just starting a weight-loss diet—it’s all about
momentum. To create some serious momentum toward rapid
weight loss, women should consume around 1,200 calories, and
men should aim for 1,600. If you aim for these numbers, you will
realistically end up consuming 200–400 more calories at least half
the time. When I lost 120 pounds, my plan was to eat no more than
1,200 calories a day, except for on my high-calorie day (if I had
earned it), but I consumed up to 1,600 calories at times. No one
had to tell me that the closer I stayed to 1,200 calories, the faster
my results would be—but just in case you need someone to tell
you: the closer you stick to 1,200 calories for a woman and 1,600
for a man, the more dramatic your results will be. You know what’s
great about knowing that? You have no excuse for mediocre
results—your results are your responsibility and yours alone, but
I’m certainly going to give you every tool in my bag to help you on
your way.
Even though keeping an eye on calories is important, I don’t plan
my meals thinking calories first—I start with nutrients, and then I
turn to calories to establish serving sizes. I will go into this in
greater detail starting on Meal Composition 101. However, it does
help to think about your meals with general calorie goals. Here’s an
example of how you could break out your calories for a day:
Meal 1
Meal 2
Meal 3
Snack
Total
1,200-Calorie Day (Women)
350
350
350
150
1,200
1,600-Calorie Day (Men)
450
450
450
250
1,600
This is a very general guideline that you can manipulate to work for
you. You can certainly skip the snack and break that number down
into your meals or have larger meals at any point in the day; just
aim to hit as close to the total number recommended as possible.
And remember that it’s likely that you will consume 200–400
undocumented calories—even small bites or sneaky handfuls can
add up quickly; how much goes undocumented comes down to
your level of motivation to create results.
Tracy’s Food Rule #3:
You Can Take Weight Off Faster Than You
Put It On
You are currently eating enough calories to maintain or increase
your body weight, whatever it is. Once you start eating fewer
calories, your body will reflect that change in its size—it’s pure
science. But here’s the thing about science: it doesn’t operate on
emotions, and it doesn’t understand fairness; it knows only
numbers. This means if you make small changes in your calorie
consumption, then you will see small changes in your body
weight. If instead you make big changes in your daily calorie
consumption, you will see big changes. Even better—if you make
big changes quickly, this will produce big changes quickly! So
what are you waiting for?
Meal Composition 101
Every good-tasting dish starts with ingredients that balance and
complement one another; knowing how and what ingredients to
combine to achieve this balance is what makes a good, or even
great, cook. All professional chefs create dishes and meals with
composition in mind, but you don’t have to be a professional to put
this knowledge to use in your own kitchen.
Learning and focusing on the concept of composing meals is the
key to making lasting changes in your diet for weight loss and
maintenance. Taking this approach will help you automatically
develop the habits of making better nutritional food choices.
When you think about most common dishes, the protein
component plays the lead role, and everything else complements
or plays off of the flavors of the protein. The carbohydrate often
comes next on the list, and many times a dish stops there. Some
well-known meals that follow this order are: steak and potatoes,
spaghetti and meatballs, pot roast (beef stew) and rice, fried
chicken and biscuits, hot dog on a bun—you get the picture … it’s
just a meat with a starchy carbohydrate. The last element to be
considered is the lowly vegetable—maybe a small green salad,
steamed broccoli and cauliflower, or microwaved frozen green
beans and carrots (since this is the standard experience of
vegetables, it’s no wonder we go out for burritos and buckets of
Chinese food). To top it off, we’ve practically made cheese its own
food group by adding extra to just about every meal at breakfast,
lunch, or dinner. This is no way to eat if you have any interest in
health, let alone if you have the desire to lose weight and develop a
strong and toned body.
The mistake we’ve been making is leading with the calorie-dense
ingredients, like carbs, fats, and protein, instead of the lowest
calorie, yet nutrient-dense ingredients: vegetables. I’m going to
have you approach your meals in an entirely different order using a
strategy that allows you to eat a lot of food with few calories. I call it
the V-First approach. This means when you think about your meal
composition, you always think vegetables first. You will create your
meals in this order of priority:
Vegetables (non-starchy)
Protein
Fats
Simple and Complex Carbs (including starchy vegetables)
When you take this order into consideration first, and then use
calories as a guide for your serving sizes, no foods are off limits.
Vegetables—A Bigger Plate with Fewer Calories
When it came to changing my diet, volume was a top priority, which
I discovered came down to a reordering of the standard way of
eating. I knew I wanted to continue to eat a lot of food so I wouldn’t
feel deprived in any way, and the only way I could do that was to not
limit vegetables, the lowest calorie-dense food of all. Little did I
know that this simple bit of reorganization would give me so much
more than weight loss. It turns out vegetables are highly nutritious
and have incredibly satisfying flavor potential.
To make sure I wasn’t setting myself up for failure, I set some
parameters for my unlimited vegetables rule: first, they weren’t
entirely undocumented—at the end of each day, I would count all
consumed nonstarchy vegetables as having a total of 100 calories;
and second, I had to count starchy vegetables for their full calorie
value (since the starchy vegetables have a higher carbohydrate
content, you’ll find them listed them under the carb section; see
Complex Carbs). You can eat as much as you want of the following
vegetables each day, but be sure to count them as 100 calories:
Asparagus
Bell peppers (red, yellow, green)
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage, all varieties
Cauliflower
Carrots
Chard
Celery
Chile peppers, all varieties
Cucumber
Eggplant
Fennel
Green beans
Leafy greens, all varieties (kale, collards, mustard, turnip, beet)
Lettuce, all varieties, including radicchio
Mushrooms
Onions, all varieties (leeks, scallions, shallots)
Summer squashes, all varieties (pattypan, crookneck, zucchini)
Tomatoes (actually a fruit, but listed here for simplicity)
Not Your Mama’s Salad
A salad is not iceberg lettuce, a few unripe tomato slices, and a
giant glob of blue cheese—at least not the salads you’re going to
eat. I’m going to teach you a completely new way of creating
salads that are bursting with layers of flavor and texture and are
topped with satisfying dressings that don’t drown out the flavors of
your food. You’re going to discover vegetables that are peppery,
sweet, savory, and fresh—foods that fill up your bowl and your
belly (without filling it out). Not to mention, they’re certain to
please your taste buds. So keep an open mind when you get to
my salad recipes in Salads—the salad has officially been
reinvented.
What you’ll discover is that these vegetables are filling and
satisfying when you prepare and cook them with the right
seasoning and flavors—be adventurous and have fun when you
start cooking, and don’t be afraid to try new food and flavor
combinations.
Here’s an example of the vegetables I eat daily:
2 cups of fresh spinach, blended into a smoothie
4 cups of mixed greens, shredded cabbage, carrot, onion, jalapeño,
and cilantro
2 cups of veggies (excluding potatoes) as the base for a soup or chili,
with all veg scraps going into homemade stocks
At least a handful of celery, carrot, and broccoli stalk sticks
If you can’t tell, that’s not only a lot of veggies; it’s a lot of food! I
promise—you are not going to feel hungry when you start eating
like this.
Tracy’s Food Rule #4: Flavor Saves
If you steam your veggies, especially ones like brussels sprouts
and cauliflower that can have a bitter flavor, you are unlikely to
enjoy them. Instead, try roasting them—roasted vegetables are
great on their own or in a salad. To roast vegetables, preheat
your oven to 400°F. Then, prep 1 to 3 cups of your selected
vegetable (if you’re using a starchy vegetable, like winter squash,
be sure to count the calories) and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to
them, tossing to cover the vegetables as best you can. Sprinkle
with salt and pepper, and place in the oven for 30–40 minutes, or
until desired doneness. You can also add a squeeze of lemon
juice once they’re done for added flavor. I want you to think of
olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper as your new best friends. Olive
oil adds depth and flavor, lemon adds brightness, a little salt will
bring the flavor of foods to the forefront, and pepper adds a kick
of spice.
I recommend picking up some sea or kosher salt for your
cooking—you’ll notice a big difference between these and iodized
salts. Do a side-by-side taste test and you will understand what I
mean. Besides taste, most cooks use kosher salt because the
larger flakes stick to foods and you actually use less. You want
your foods to be flavorful, not salty. As every good cook knows,
salt enhances the flavors of food, but too much of it can be
counterproductive to your goal of weight loss since it causes your
body to retain water.
Protein
A lot of people have a problem getting enough protein in their daily
meals, but they may not realize why. It’s not because it’s difficult to
prepare proteins or to work them into meals—it’s because we
have been conditioned to grab the carbs first. We eat cereal,
bagels, scones, and so on for breakfast. For lunch, it’s a
cheeseburger and fries; a burrito made with a tortilla, beans, rice,
and a little bit of meat, cheese, and sour cream; pizza, which is
again bread, cheese, and a salty meat; or a big, fat sandwich
that’s mostly bread. Dinner is usually the same—a pile of mashed
potatoes with a steak, or maybe a giant bowl of pasta with a few
pieces of chicken or ground beef.
Of course, if you go out to eat at a restaurant, you will be eating not
only the main course meal but also the basket of chips or the half
loaf of bread you started off with on the table. It’s no surprise then
that people aren’t hungry for protein—they’re stuffed with filling
carbs, most of which have little to no nutritional value. This is why it
is so important to learn how to feed yourself instead of relying on
restaurants or prepackaged meals. It’s time to stop trusting
someone else with the job of taking care of your body—you can do
so much better.
When you get into the practice of feeding yourself, you’ll discover
the protein element comes easily. Here’s what is on your protein
list:
Beef
Chicken and turkey
Cottage cheese
Eggs
Lamb
Pork
Seafood
Cottage cheese is the only dairy in the protein category. This is
because it’s the only form of dairy that has more protein than it
does fat or carbs. All types of dairy have protein, carbs, and fats,
but the proportions vary, which is why you’ll find them in different
categories. For example, you’ll see cream and whole milk are
considered fats, but low-fat and non-fat milks are listed as carbs
because they’re mostly lactose, or milk sugar. In keeping with my
preference for whole foods and my order of nutrient priority, I will
always opt to have the protein and/or fat versions (cottage cheese,
cream, or whole milk) during a day, rather than the carbohydrate
one (low-fat or non-fat milk).
I list seafood as a protein option, but I personally don’t eat a lot of it
for a couple reasons. The first is that seafood does not fill me up.
The second is based on pure convenience. I like to buy seafood
fresh and cook it up the same day to eat, but since I do the bulk of
my food prep and cooking so early in the morning, that just doesn’t
work. Plus, seafood only keeps for two days, and I prefer to stock
my fridge with meals that last a bit longer. There are exceptions,
like frozen shrimp and salmon burgers, which are easier to buy in
advance, but it’s just too much extra effort for me on a regular
basis. However, seafood is one of the fastest foods to cook, and it
tastes great with minimal ingredients, so if you can make it work
for you at home, it can be an excellent protein option.
Most proteins are easy to prepare, and these days you can even
find ready-made options that you can add to meals. Whether you
make it yourself or buy it, you can get four to six meals out of a
roasted chicken, a pound of ground meat, or a dozen eggs. I
recommend buying full-fat (non-lean) cuts of meat for the flavor, but
just be sure to count the calories in the portion you’ve eaten.
Here’s an example of what your protein consumption could look
like over the course of a day:
½ to 1 cup of cottage cheese (100–200 calories)
4 ounces chicken or pork tenderloin in a salad (171–185 calories)
4 ounces beef, lamb, or pork (185–300 calories), which I would
normally add to a soup, stew, or chili
If you are a vegetarian and you are overweight, I want you to apply
the same principle to your meals—put veggies first, and your
calories will fall into place. Even though I eat meat, I’m certain I eat
more vegetables than most vegetarians. A lot of vegetarians are
really just non-meat eaters because they often base their meals
around carbs and cheese. Meals like bagels with cheese, nachos
with cheese, and grilled cheese sandwiches may not have any
meat, but they’re certainly not healthful. True vegetarians eat
vegetables more than anything else, which means it’s highly
unlikely they are overweight. If you are a vegetarian who doesn’t
need to lose weight, but you want to know how to change your
body, my advice remains the same: vegetables first (and of
course, kettlebell workouts).
Fats in Your Food
(How to Make a Little Go a Long Way)
For years after I decided to change my body, I rarely ate cheese,
but somehow I didn’t even notice it was missing. The reason for
this is that when I composed my meals, cheese never made the
priority list. This doesn’t mean you can’t eat cheese—if you want to
eat 1,200 calories of cheese and call it a day, go right ahead
(though I’m sure it will be a one-time binge considering how you’ll
feel afterward).
Even if you want to eat just a little cheese, keep in mind that its
proportion of fat is higher than its other nutritional qualities, and
don’t forget the high sodium content. This means it has a high
calories-to-volume ratio (fat has more calories per ounce than
carbs or proteins). I prefer to use my fats in a way that benefits or
dresses up my vegetables. By using olive oil to sauté, roast, or grill
veggies, or by adding it to a large salad as part of a dressing, you
will satisfy your palate with a bit of fat without overdoing it.
Fat is not the enemy. In fact, it’s important to keep fat calories in
your diet for several reasons: they provide energy; they add flavor
and texture to keep foods from becoming dry and bland; they help
absorb the fat-soluble vitamins D, E, and A; and they provide a
greater sense of satisfaction, which helps prevent hunger, whereas
cutting fats too much can trigger cravings or binge eating.
So how do you keep fats in your diet without consuming all your
calories for the day? Well, the good news is that if you pick the
right forms of fat, a little can go a long way. I begin every cooked
dish with a fat, usually in the form of one tablespoon of olive oil.
Salad dressings are a base of fat and acid; the fat is usually in the
form of olive oil, to which I add something acidic, such as vinegar
or lemon juice.
Let’s take a look at some other fats. Dairy fats, besides cheese,
are: butter, cream, half-and-half, and whole milk (not low-fat or nonfat). Then there are the nut butters, like peanut butter, almond
butter, and so on. And a couple sneaky fats to remember are
whole nuts and avocados, which a lot of people label as healthful
fats. I’m not going to get into healthful fats because when you are
trying to lose weight, you should limit all fats to a certain
percentage of your daily calories.
Fats are roughly 100–120 calories per tablespoon or serving size,
so based on a 1,200–1,600 daily allotment of calories, you should
have about 150–300 fat calories per day. Does this seem like a lot
or a little to you? If it seems like a lot, then you must have no idea
how much fat you are consuming right now, which I’m sure has
contributed to any issues you have with weight. You will discover,
as I did, that a large part of changing your diet is about plain and
simple awareness—especially if you’ve been relying on others to
make meals for you, you have no idea what you’ve been eating.
Here’s the breakdown of my daily fat consumption:
1 tablespoon of cream (52 calories)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise or olive oil in dressing (57–120 calories)
1 ounce of nuts or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (about 185 calories)
When I use oil (up to 2 tablespoons) to start a soup, stew, or chili, I
don’t count the calories because it gets distributed significantly
throughout the whole batch, and each portion has very little oil.
Carbs
When most people think of carbohydrates, they think of potatoes,
bread, and chips, but in reality, carbohydrates exist in various
forms and amounts in almost every type of food. I think it’s easiest
to look at carbs in two categories: simple and complex. Sugar,
honey, fresh fruit, dried fruit, fruit juice, low-fat milk products
(because they’re mostly milk sugar), and alcohol fall into the simple
carb category. Complex carbs include foods like rice, beans,
pasta, oats, grains, flour, and starchy vegetables like peas,
potatoes, squash, and corn. I’m going to give you an overview of
the different types of carbohydrates and share with you my
strategies for being smart about your carb selection.
Simple Carbs
For our purposes, simple carbs will include: sugar (all forms), fresh
fruit, dried fruit, fruit juice, low-fat milk products, and alcohol. These
carbohydrates are called simple because they have a basic
molecular structure, which means they break down into glucose
quickly. This allows for them to become usable energy very quickly,
which can be good if you need the energy. If you don’t need it—and
chances are you don’t because you probably have enough stored
energy (fat)—then it converts to stored energy, or more fat.
I have always had a sweet tooth, so when I first started creating
dietary principles for myself, I knew I had to cater to my natural
taste cravings in some way. One of the best tricks I discovered is
to incorporate sweetness into my meals by adding something like
honey or brown sugar to a dressing or marinade. This way you get
the flavor satisfaction without all the calories you would consume if
you ate, say, six chocolate chip cookies (my favorite former
dessert from McDonald’s). I make marinades and dressings that
are composed of fat (oil), salt (soy sauce), sugar (honey or brown
sugar), and some kind of acid (vinegar, or lemon or lime juice), and
seasoning like spices and herbs. I’ve found that giving a grilled or
broiled piece of meat or fish a touch of sweet flavor or eating a
delicious, dessert-like salad can stave off a future sugar craving.
When it comes to what type of sugar to use, I recommend real
ingredients rather than artificial. This means choosing options like
brown sugar, white sugar, honey, and molasses. Artificial
sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucralose, can be hundreds
of times sweeter than real sugars and therefore can distort your
palate as you work toward transforming it. Over-flavored and
processed foods are not conducive to retraining your taste buds to
crave fresher, healthier foods.
For me, having a sweet tooth also means having a fondness for
fruit, which can be just as tempting to overdo as candy. The
problem with fruit is its high sugar content—it can be a high-calorie
trap, so it’s important to monitor your serving sizes and make
smart selections. For example, I love grapes, so much so that I can
still eat a whole pound in one sitting (around 300 calories).
Because of this, one of the rules I created for myself is to only buy
the amount of grapes that I can eat based on the number of
calories I want to consume. That means I’ll typically buy pound of
grapes, which is approximately 100 calories. Another tip is to buy
only fruits that have a higher fiber content and are therefore more
filling. For example, an apple with the skin on (95 calories for a
medium one) is one of my favorite snacks, and I can tell you I’ve
never been tempted to eat two—they are definitely my number-one
fruit choice.
Use common sense, though, and know that an extra-large piece of
fruit is going to have twice as many calories as a small one. Even
when it comes to something you might think of as healthful, don’t try
to get away with anything—stick to counting the calories in your
foods. As for fruit juices, I recommend skipping them; it’s better to
eat your calories than to drink them. If you have to have some
flavorful liquid, like juice or soda, start to wean yourself from the fullstrength versions by adding water to juice or sparkling water to
soda. Continue diluting it until you get to at least a 50:50 ratio. This
way, you get the flavor without the excess calories.
Tracy’s Food Rule #5: Healthful Choice? Not
So Fast
Some starchy fruits are more calorie dense and will make your
total calorie count higher than you think. How can fruit be bad?
How can any fresh food be bad? Too much of a good thing is still
too much. No matter what the nutritional value, eating too many
calories will contribute to weight gain. Some fruits—such as
bananas, mangoes, grapes, and cherries—can add up quickly in
calories mostly because you are more likely to overeat them.
Keep a close eye on your consumption of these fruits!
Dried fruits are concentrated sugar, and the calories reflect this.
Be extra careful of dried fruits with added sugar; a lot of times you
will find sugar has been added to dried varieties of cranberries,
pineapple, and mango, so just be sure to check the label. You can
use dried fruits like raisins in your salads, trail mix, or even soups
—I love them in cauliflower soup, with lentils, and as an addition to
savory dishes to give it a delicious sweet-and-savory combination.
The calories add up quickly, though, so don’t go overboard—
raisins have around 33 calories per tablespoon.
Non-fat and low-fat milk also fall into the category of simple
carbohydrates because they’re mostly lactose, or milk sugar. I
recommend selecting the forms of dairy that are considered
protein or fats (half-and-half, heavy whipping cream) before these
options; this way, you get to enjoy the richer, more satisfying
flavors.
Wine and other alcoholic drinks are carbs, and if you consume
them, you must count the calories just like with everything else.
When I first modified my diet, I didn’t drink any alcohol, and for over
three years it never came into play—I just wasn’t willing to spend
150–200 calories on a glass of wine, not even on my high-calorie
day (see The Argument for the High-Calorie Day for more on the
high-calorie day). However, I recently started to enjoy a glass or
two of red wine almost every night, but I always figure the calories
into my daily allotment. If you choose to drink alcohol, just be sure
to do the same.
Tracy’s Food Rule #6: Eat Sweet Without
Sabotage
I never cut sugar completely from my diet because I knew it was a
restriction that wouldn’t work for me, and because I don’t view
sugar as some sort of enemy. There are creative and smart ways
to satisfy your sweet tooth without sabotage. For example, when
you use dressings or marinades with a hint of sweetness, you can
satisfy a sweet craving—it may take some time to reeducate your
palate, but once you do, you’ll discover that a little sugar goes a
long way. I have sweetness in my smoothies in the form of sugar,
honey, or maple syrup. I like sweet, I like sugar, and I’m not going
to apologize for it! Enjoy sweetness, but just be smart about it by
ensuring you measure your quantities and count your calories.
Here’s a quick glance at how your daily simple carbohydrate
consumption could shape up—you’ll notice it’s not a lot, but like I
mentioned, once you’ve trained your palate to appreciate fresh,
real foods, measured sweetness will be plenty satisfying:
1 tablespoon of raisins or 2 prunes (33–40 calories)
1 medium apple, or 1 cup of grapes (95–104 calories)
1 tablespoon of sugar in a smoothie, oatmeal, or salad dressing (46
calories)
Complex Carbs
The other type of carbohydrate is the complex carb, which includes
starchy vegetables, rice, beans, pasta, oats, grains, and flour.
These foods can be calorie dense, so be sure to familiarize
yourself with the calorie counts of your favorite staples. Complex
carbs are calorie dense and tend to make me feel bloated, which
is why they’re the last category I consider in my meal composition.
Most complex carbs will create some type of bloat because they
have the potential to hold up to four times their weight in water. Pay
attention to how your body feels the day after you eat them so you
can make adjustments accordingly (since your goal is to lose
weight, feeling bloated is not exactly a welcome experience).
The starch-heavy vegetables you should count as carbs are: beets;
peas; winter squashes, such as butternut, acorn, and spaghetti
squash; parsnips; all types of potatoes; corn; and plantains.
Here’s the breakdown of what your daily complex carbohydrate
consumption could look like:
½ cup dry oats (150 calories) or ¾ cup cooked spaghetti (132
calories)
1 cup butternut squash (82 calories) or ¾ cup cooked split peas,
beans, barley, rice, or lentils in a stew or chili (145–175 calories)
And there you have it—you’re now armed with a simple strategy
with which to approach your meals. Start with vegetables first, then
proteins, fats, and finally carbohydrates, and you will make a smart
plate that fuels your body without filling it out. Keep in mind that the
daily consumption examples I listed within each category are
meant to be used as a general guideline—mix and match these
items and aim for 1,200 calories if you’re a woman, 1,600 calories
if you’re a man. The closer you stick to these numbers, the faster
the weight will fall off.
Your Oats, Not Mine
Oatmeal works for me. I love it and look forward to eating
oatmeal, and it’s consistently been the one “carb-only” meal I eat.
Here’s what’s great about it: 1) you get a huge serving from just ½
cup of dry oats, 2) you can make it sweet or savory, and 3) it will
keep you regular. I often have oatmeal for dinner because it
leaves me feeling satisfied and sleepy. Plenty of people out
there will tell you that you have to eat steel-cut oats for it to be
beneficial, but I don’t discriminate between Cream of Wheat, hot
multigrain cereals, steel-cut oats, or plain instant oatmeal. While
the nutritional content may differ slightly between these various
types, what’s most important is that it makes you happy and it’s
something you look forward to. Believe me, it’s not your oatmeal
selection that will keep you fat or make you gain weight—it’s
everything else you end up eating when you don’t enjoy the foods
on your diet. This is your diet and no one else’s, so eat the foods
you love, but just do it wisely.
The Argument for the High-Calorie Day
You may have heard that your body can adapt to eating fewer
calories by slowing its metabolism—it’s true, and when that
happens, you can hit a plateau or actually gain weight while eating
a reduced-calorie diet. Imagine that nightmare. So how do you
ensure this doesn’t happen? You spike your calories once a week
with a lovely concept called the high-calorie day (I don’t like to
always refer to it as a cheat day because that suggests it’s a bad
thing). Here’s the tricky part—you are only allowed the high-calorie
day if you first meet your weight-loss goal during the week. How do
you ensure you meet your weight-loss goal each week? You stick
as close as you can to the calorie range of 1,200 calories a day for
women, and 1,600 calories a day for men.
It’s important to approach the high-calorie day with a little
uncommon common sense. I know how much food people can eat
when they’re told that they can eat whatever they want, nonstop,
from morning to night, pedal to the metal, whole hog literally for one
full day—and it’s really not necessary to go on a twenty-four-hour
binge in order to feel you’ve had a break from your eating
guidelines. Two hours is plenty.
Let’s think in terms of one of my other favorite activities: shopping.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to win a shopping
spree? You know, the kind where the store gives you a huge
shopping basket and let’s you run riot for maybe two minutes? Do
you think the store would ever let you go crazy for an entire day?
You’d absorb all their profits and then some. Just like that store, I
know better than to tell an overeater to spend the whole day
feeding their face. This is why it’s important to approach your highcalorie day with a few parameters.
When I first created principles for how I was going to eat, the rule I
set for my cheat day was that I had to earn it by meeting my weekly
weight-loss goal. It was pretty simple for me because I was eating
foods I loved in order to lose weight; it wasn’t hard. Since my
husband and I had a weekly date night, I decided to cheat on that
night because I wanted it to be free of any restrictions. I ate
everything I wanted to—and lots I didn’t necessarily want to (like on
a shopping spree, you just start grabbing whatever you can get
your hands on).
Eventually, I got better at picking and choosing the foods I wanted
to treat myself to on that one night. Then, the day after, I would
lower my calories to a more precise 1,200, and I was pretty strict
on this one day, more so than any other. The result: I always lost
whatever weight I might have gained from the high-calorie day.
That way I was ready to start the next week energized and
motivated all over again. I’m telling you—it’s worth it, and it will
keep your momentum driving forward at full speed.
This type of calorie cycling isn’t just a trick I made up; it’s a
common practice in the sport of bodybuilding. Bodybuilders
figured out very early in the eighties that consistently lowering their
caloric intake would stop their fat loss efforts since the body
adapts to the lower intake by slowing the metabolism. Spiking their
calories served two purposes: the first was to remind the body that
it wasn’t going to starve, which would keep its metabolism high; the
second was for psychological reasons—allowing this day off made
it easier to stick to their diet throughout the week. Trust me, you are
going to look forward to that free day. Just remember, you have to
earn it.
So let’s review the rules for the high-calorie day:
Weight loss is essential. If you did not lose weight during week, you
do not get a cheat day. Why? Because you’ve obviously been
overeating enough during the week. One of the reasons for a cheat
day is to get a break from the mental stress of calorie restriction, but if
you haven’t truly been eating within your calorie range, then you don’t
need a mental break. You can either expect results or hope for them
—let your actions create your expectations.
Choose one mealtime or “two hours to devour.” This time frame
should fall on the same day each week (the body craves and
responds well to consistency). Yes, it’s called a high-calorie day, but
you really don’t need an entire day to satisfy all your pent-up cravings.
Get your fill in a set period of time; then aim to eat normally the rest of
the day, whether it’s in the morning or evening.
Follow up your cheat day with a low-calorie day. I know that
sticking with the low-calorie day after the high-calorie day strategy
helped keep me motivated because I never had to see the number on
the scale go up, but it’s not an essential rule to follow—just do the best
you can with it. You’ve got the rest of the week to catch up, and
scientifically you really didn’t do much damage, if any at all, to your
weight loss; in fact, you are preventing damage by spiking your
calories. If you see a weight gain, it’s probably just those carbs (we
both know you’re going to have carbs on your cheat day) holding onto
water. If you want to avoid even a temporary weight gain, follow the
high-calorie day with a low-calorie day closer to around 1,000
calories (1,250–1,300 calories for men).
Food Journaling
As you get ready to change your daily eating habits, I want to
emphasize how important it is to track what you’re eating in a food
journal. The best way to approach the idea of tracking calories is to
simply look at it as data. If you don’t want to educate yourself on the
facts of your daily calorie consumption, then you already know the
problem and are afraid to face it, and you’re probably not truly
ready for change. Just like stepping on a scale, though, it can be
liberating to take responsibility. Looking at the nutritional
information on the packages of all the foods you choose will
become first nature, and that’s not bad. Becoming an expert on
food is fun; make a game out of it!
You’ll find a blank food journal in the Appendices (see Appendix A)
that you can copy and use each day. I recommend you keep a
running total throughout the day, which means carrying a little
notebook with you or, if you have a smartphone, downloading one
of the many apps now available for tracking foods and calories. A
couple of examples of my own food journals are shown on the
following pages.
When I first started keeping track of what I was eating, I did it at the
end of each day from memory, but I have found it much easier to
journal a few times throughout the day, although not necessarily
right after you’ve eaten. The important point is to jot it down soon
enough that you don’t forget (accidentally or purposefully).
While it’s important to track everything, I don’t want you to treat
food journaling like your taxes or to feel like it’s your judge and jury.
Think of it more like scientific data you’ve collected on your body—
you’ll be able to understand what foods make you feel sluggish,
heavy, or bloated, what foods make you feel light and energized,
and what flavors really please your palate.
Do you have to be militant with your tracking? No. I believe in order
for it to become a consistent activity, it must not feel like
homework. I often guess a bit on the high side, and I don’t list
literally every single calorie that passes my lips. I don’t count single
bites of stuff (unless it’s followed by another), nor do I count small
portions like two almonds. I have a Misc. category where I list a
guess between 50 and 100 calories based on that particular day.
Instead of writing something precise like “10 carrot sticks = 8
calories,” I’ll just list “handful of carrot sticks” at the end of the day
along with all other “unlimited” veggie calories and count them as
100. Be honest with yourself and allow your food journal to become
as close to an accurate record of your calorie consumption as
possible, but don’t let it take the fun out of eating.
11 Putting It All into Practice
When I changed my diet and starting
cooking for myself, I had just recently
learned how to cook by taking some
classes at a local gourmet kitchen store.
I had never roasted a chicken, grilled a
steak, or made a pot of soup. My entire
life I had wanted to have this skill, but I
didn’t grow up in a family where cooking
was a priority, let alone something that
was taught and passed on. What was
the most embarrassing, now that I look
back, was that I was trying to raise a
family with no experience or knowledge
of how to feed them. Now I have the skill
to feed them—and myself—well.
You might think you’re too busy to cook, but you’re not.
In this chapter, I’m going to give you some invaluable
tips for how to make meal preparation fast and easy.
When you apply the simple strategies I’ve suggested for
you here, you’ll discover that food preparation happens
at a much quicker pace than you’re used to. You might
even be surprised to discover that cooking, even just
cutting vegetables, is a calming and meditative
process. I dare you to enjoy it.
Getting into the Rhythm of Cooking
There’s no better investment than learning how to cook.
I’m not talking about complex recipes or techniques, but
everyday skills and methods that anyone can learn
quickly and then apply in the kitchen to make cooking
simple and fun. It’s not complicated, but a little bit of
knowledge can go a long way. The more you cook, the
easier and more enjoyable it becomes, and just as with
any skill, it takes time to develop.
The most valuable foundational lessons I learned when I
first started cooking were how to prep foods with a knife
and how to set up my kitchen before cooking a meal;
knowing these simple strategies helped me transition
smoothly into cooking my own meals. Read on to learn
how you can integrate these two lessons into your own
cooking habits.
Knife Skills
One of the most important foundations of becoming a
good cook is learning how to use a knife. You may know
how to cut foods, but chances are, unless you prep
foods regularly, you’re not very fast at it. Practice—that
is, just doing it a lot—is the only way that will make it
easier and faster to cook your own meals. How do you
think Rachael Ray can have so many meals in her 30-
Minute Meals repertoire? Because she has the knife
skills to get the work done quickly. Prepping correctly
will also improve the quality and taste of your foods.
The most important detail to strive for when it comes to
cutting and chopping foods is consistency in size. Don’t
worry if it’s not perfect—you’ll become more
comfortable and proficient in your skills with practice.
One simple way to make prepping foods easier is to
make sure you are using the right type of knife—I
recommend an 8- or 10-inch chef’s knife.
Creating confidence in your knife skills takes practice,
but the more you cook, the better you’ll get. One of my
favorite ways to practice and improve my knife skills is
to make something known as a mirepoix (mir-pwah),
which is a French term used to describe a basic mixture
of carrots, onions, celery, and herbs that is sautéed in
oil or butter. Virtually every soup and stew recipe starts
with mirepoix. There is no better way to hone your knife
skills than practicing with this mix. To try it, simply get
one small onion, two carrots, and two to three celery
stalks. Chop each ingredient into a fine to medium dice,
aiming to create uniformity in size and shape. Pick a
day to pre-chop mirepoix for a number of dishes that
you want to have during the week, and store it in an
airtight container in the fridge until you are ready to use
it. Once you get in the habit of all the chopping, it
doesn’t take long, but getting it done ahead of time will
make cooking that much faster and easier.
Tracy’s Food Rule #7: Chop an
Onion a Day
When someone tells me that they don’t like onions, I
suspect what they really mean is they don’t like raw
onions, because practically every savory dish you
make requires an onion. Cutting an onion correctly is
a skill that only develops with practice. First, you cut
the onion in half from root to stem. Place the flat side
of the cut onion on the cutting board and slice off the
stem end (the non hairy side). Here’s the trickiest part:
make some horizontal cuts toward the root end, but not
through the root because the root is what holds the
onion together while you cut it. Push the knife forward,
away, and then pull toward you as this will make
horizontal cutting easier. Now make your vertical cuts,
and you’ve chopped an onion. If you chop an onion
each day, you are likely to use it somewhere—in a
soup, in a stew, in a pasta sauce. Just an act of
making your own meal, even if it is only once a day,
will go a long way to cutting your intake of calories. The
act of chopping an onion is a first step you can take
toward eating right—just like walking, it’s an entry point
into healthier living because it represents connecting
with real foods and flavors. While mastering the skill of
chopping an onion (and using it), you will come to
appreciate how easy other foods are to chop and
prepare.
Everything in Place
There’s another phrase in French that I love: mise en
place. It’s a basic concept of cooking that means
“everything in place.” When you cook, everything goes
much smoother if you have all the foods and tools you’ll
need at the ready. Especially when you’re making a
recipe for the first time, it is highly recommended that
you have all the ingredients you need together, in one
place, before you start cooking. The most obvious
place is your kitchen counter, but if you don’t have a lot
of space, a side or kitchen table will do. Once you’re
ready to start actually making the meal, everything is
right in front of you. This will also help you avoid
forgetting any ingredients or steps. If you are missing
one or two ingredients, don’t worry. Just keep on
cooking because no matter how it turns out, you’ll have
practiced, and there’s always a way to make something
edible. When I have flops in the kitchen, good taste
comes second to hot and edible. If you start with fresh
ingredients, how bad could it be?
The Gateway to Cooking: ReadyMade Foods
I hope I’ve convinced you and inspired you to make
and prepare all of your own foods—I can’t emphasize
enough how important this step was to making my diet
become a lifestyle. If you need a transitional method
because you’ve convinced yourself you have to
purchase ready-made foods, then purchase only
foods, not ready-made meals, and put them together
—this can be part of your progression toward making
your own meals entirely. Even if you opt for readymade foods, establish the minimum commitment of
making and preparing at least one of your three
meals.
The difference between buying ready-made meals
and ready-made foods is that the foods require you to
be more hands-on, which will move you closer toward
cooking for yourself. If you pick up a roasted chicken
at the grocery store and add this to a home-prepared
salad, you have evolved beyond just picking up an
entirely pre-made Chinese chicken salad. Buying the
whole salad prepped will not teach you about food
preparation, but buying shredded cabbage and adding
it to other seasonal veggies will be an entry-level
lesson. The more hands on you are, the more
satisfied and confident you will become in feeding
yourself, and the faster your evolution toward cooking
entirely for yourself will take place.
Once you have everything set up, it’s time to start
chopping, slicing, and dicing. Do this before you even
think about turning on the stovetop—unless of course
the recipe requires preheating the oven. Since you’ll be
making a lot of delicious, hearty salads on this plan, you
can actually prep a lot of your foods up to a week in
advance (see Smart Salad Prep).
Planning Your Meals
Do you know what you’re going to eat today? If the
answer is no, then you need to get into the practice of
planning for your meals and preparing them ahead of
time. This is quite possibly the most important part of
establishing who or what dictates your future health and
body weight—is it going to be chance or you? Chance
hasn’t worked so far, so it’s time to try preparation
instead. I can tell you what I’m going to eat today,
because there isn’t a week that goes by when I don’t
know what my main meals are going to be or that I don’t
have them already prepared in advance. I wouldn’t want
it any other way.
The simplest and most efficient way to approach eating
each week is to choose the same meals to have for at
least four days out of seven. (If you look at what you’re
eating now, you’re probably eating the same half a
dozen meals or so on a rotation; you’re just eating the
wrong meals.) Prepping the same meals alleviates the
need to make decisions and choices, and it frees you
up to focus on other important tasks during your day.
This habit is crucial to establishing long-term weightloss success. Ask most people who have never had
extra body weight what they eat every day, and more
times than not, they will tell you they eat basically the
same foods. During these past six years of maintaining
my weight loss, I’m convinced the one time I gained
back 20 pounds was because I broke this habit.
Looking back over food journals, I identified what had
changed, and as soon as I went back to a routine menu,
the weight practically fell off. Our bodies like
consistency; in fact, they thrive off it.
There’s a world of choices out there, and you can’t
possibly eat everything, although you’ve probably spent
plenty of time trying—I know I did. It’s not about focusing
on what you can’t have, or what you think you’re missing
out on, because the truth is that nothing is off limits.
When you focus on learning how to compose your
meals in order of nutritional priority, you will feel more
satisfied than ever. You’ll be eating plenty of food
throughout the week, and remember you always have
your high-calorie day not too far off in the distance.
Don’t worry that you are missing out; all you will truly be
missing out on is getting, or staying, fat!
Tracy’s Food Rule #8: You Can Eat
Well on Any Budget
You don’t have to buy expensive organic fruits and
vegetables to lose weight or to get healthy. At one
time, I tried to buy everything organic and found that it
made food prep stressful, not only because I had to
schedule extra time for tracking down what I needed
from different farmers’ markets and grocery stores, but
also because it added too many more questions than I
could handle when it came to selecting foods: Is this
local enough? Does this one have more chemicals
than that one? Eventually, I just had to relax because I
was overcomplicating something I loved. If you have
the time and money to visit your local farmers’
markets, I highly encourage you to do it, but don’t
create more rules for your eating habits than you have
to for success.
I love to use Sunday as my prep day. Sunday is a great
day to go to the farmers’ markets or the grocery store,
and it’s a great day to dedicate to your personal wellbeing. A word of caution: never, ever try to do food
prep when you are hungry. I recommend doing it at a
time of day when food is least tempting, or even about
twenty minutes after you’ve eaten a meal. I do almost all
of my food prep before seven in the morning, or even
first thing when I wake up at four. I never want to eat
anything that early, and I’m barely able to bring myself to
taste for seasoning adjustments. This has proven to be
a brilliant strategy for me because I also have the most
energy right away in the morning and I’m not tempted to
snack or munch on anything I’m preparing. There are no
rules that say you have to do your food prepping or
cooking in the evenings.
Shopping List Regulars
There are a number of items that you should have in
your refrigerator or pantry at all times. When you’re
ready to head for the grocery store, refer to this list of
must-haves:
Salad vegetables: cabbage, lettuce, spinach, or any of your
favorite greens
Fats: olive oil, mayo
Pick your protein: chicken, beef, pork, lamb, eggs
Base and broth vegetables: onions, celery, and carrots
(mirepoix)
Acidic ingredients: lemons, limes for juice
Dairy: yogurt, cottage cheese
Fruit: apples or dried fruit
Sweeteners: sugar or honey
Grains/legumes: beans, rice, oats
Spices: salt and pepper
On your prep day, you should shred, chop, and dice
your salad vegetables and make any dressings you
plan to use. You can also cook proteins separately or in
big batches of soup and stews. Pre-portioning your
meals is just as important as pre-cooking them. Be sure
to stock up on containers to portion out servings as you
make them—this is a huge time-saver later in the week!
It’s especially important to pre-portion snacks. One
unmeasured handful of something inevitably leads to
another, which leads to another. By pre-portioning
snacks into serving sizes, this gives you a cutoff
reminder and you are more likely to stop after one … or
maybe two.
You’ll discover that some foods might get a big soggy
or change consistency if you prepare them too far in
advance, such as certain salad greens, breads (which
you should limit anyway), and some grains, as well as
dried fruits, which can swell up like balloons. Keep in
mind that this is a learning process, and make notes
about what components to keep separate for the first
couple of days.
When you eat at a restaurant, especially a fast-food
restaurant, how do you think they make the food so
fast? They’re certainly not chopping your ingredients
when you order your meal. The kitchen staff gets there
hours in advance to start cleaning, chopping, dicing,
measuring, pre-roasting, grating, prepping, and
anything else they can do in advance to make their job
easier when it comes to serving your meal. Sure, they
might have a few more people in their kitchen than you
do, but that doesn’t mean you can’t borrow the strategy.
Like a restaurant, you want to be ready to create great
meals in just a short amount of time. You can also
create your own soup and salad bars by taking out a
bunch of your prepped foods to make a meal—it’s just
as fun and simple at home as it is at a restaurant or
grocery store (plus, it’s better tasting).
If you haven’t established a close relationship with your
freezer, get ready to do so now. So many foods freeze
beautifully, such as soups, stews, and chilis, and there
are several other types of food that freeze and thaw out
perfectly well. You can freeze individual portions of
proteins, like diced chicken breast for salads, or
portions of cooked grains, beans, and rice, which can
be added to salads or soups.
It’s important to start seeing just about everything as
reheatable and re-eatable. If you think you don’t like
leftovers, it’s time to change the way you think.
Otherwise you are going to spend a lot more time in the
kitchen or at the bank depositing your paycheck to pay
for “freshly” made foods each day.
If you are already fast and efficient at some of your
favorite recipes, then by all means, make it as easy as
possible on yourself by continuing to make these meals.
Just be sure to go to a website like
www.calorieking.com to calculate the total number of
calories in the dish, and then divide by number of
servings. To be absolutely on target with your calories,
you could also invest in a small nutritional scale. If a dish
is high calorie, between 350–450 per single serving,
you can always use my technique for expanding foods
by adding a small portion to a salad or soup (see You
Can Soften the Blow). This way you’ll eat a filling meal
and still be able to stick to your calorie goal for the day.
When to Eat
My eating schedule has been highly successful for me,
and it’s based on a proven timing method that’s been
around for decades. While it may seem a bit
unconventional at first, I encourage you try it—
remember, what you’ve been doing hasn’t worked, so
anything is worth a shot.
I define breakfast as the first meal of the day, and I
usually eat my first meal around eleven A.M. It may not
sound that late, but I wake up at four A.M., which means I
don’t eat until seven hours after I’ve gotten up. Everyone
from expert to ordinary person has heard an opinion or
has an opinion about when and if to eat breakfast. What
I’m going to tell you is what works for me now and what
worked for me when I lost 120 pounds.
First thing in the morning, I have coffee with full-fat
cream, which keeps my blood sugar levels from
dropping. The fat in the cream helps prevent hunger
from brewing by only minimally stimulating insulin levels.
Insulin is a transport hormone that is generated when
you eat to help move the energy from the food into your
cells for use. It’s produced whenever you eat anything,
but your pancreas secretes it like crazy when you eat
carbs. Carbs drive up your blood sugar faster, which
results in you feeling hungry. Here’s a quick scenario of
how this works: if you eat a bunch of simple carbs or
sugar, your blood sugar rapidly goes up and your body
secretes insulin to move that blood sugar into your
muscle cells or fat cells, which leaves your blood sugar
low. When your blood sugar drops, you get hungry.
That’s why it’s important to keep insulin levels low in the
morning; it will keep your blood sugar levels constant
and postpone hunger.
There’s a phrase that goes “eating makes you hungry.”
The reason this is true is because eating is directly
related to insulin levels. Once you start eating, the cycle
of hormones begins to further stimulate hunger. If you’ve
ever wondered why you wake up hungry after eating late
in the evening, it’s because insulin has been working
through the night to transport the sugar out of your blood
stream. Then, once you wake up, your body sees itself
as needing to replenish its fuel, even though it really has
plenty in storage. The same goes with eating in the
morning—the sooner you eat, the more food you’ll eat
throughout the whole day.
You might be wondering if I’m dizzy or dazed by the time
I finally sit down to eat. Not in the slightest. In fact, I have
tons of energy all morning, and I even go right into my
workouts. You see, eating well the day before fills up
your body’s gas tank and gives you the fuel and energy
you need in the morning. Your body will use this stored
fuel and burn it off first.
Another description of this way of eating is called
intermittent fasting, which has proven in studies to have
great health benefits. It has shown to lower insulin levels
and increase production of fat-burning hormones, and it
teaches your body how to go into your stored energy
reserves, or fat, for fuel. This way of eating has also
been linked to increased life span.
Think about breakfast as exactly what it is: breaking the
fast. This can happen after seven hours of sleep or
seven hours of activity—it’s all about what you’ve eaten
the day before to prepare your body. I recommend not
going more than fifteen hours without food, which
includes sleep time. The point is not to see how long
you can go without eating; it’s to set your body up to
burn fat and function at its best. If you’re still skeptical,
just think about how waiting to break the fast will kickstart the fat-burning process by telling your body to
literally burn fat—just imagine all that unwanted fat
melting off you.
For your first meal of the day, I recommend you aim to
eat protein or fat so you don’t kick-start your hunger.
You can certainly do exactly what I do, which is drink
coffee only with full-fat cream—make sure it’s regular
half-and-half or heavy whipping cream, not fat-free or
light. But I realize that not everyone is a coffee drinker,
so if you need something a bit more substantial, try
eggs, hard cheese, cottage cheese, peanut butter, nuts,
or half of an avocado. The goal is to get just a little
something in your stomach without spiking your insulin
level. It goes without saying that you need to monitor the
calories of whatever you eat, especially nuts and peanut
butter. Whatever you do, do not eat high-carb foods first
thing in the morning—this includes bagels, dry cereal,
sugar, and muffins (pre-workout meals can be an
exception; see Eating Before and After Workouts).
When it comes to evening, the kitchen is closed and I
make sure I’ve had my last meal by six P.M. on most
nights. That may seem really early, but I use it as a
mental cutoff time to make sure I’m not eating during the
last couple hours of the night. Like I said, I wake up at
four A.M., but I still get eight hours of sleep, which means
going to bed at eight P.M.
I like waking up feeling light—and not eating two hours
before I fall asleep is the best way I can accomplish this.
If I find myself eating after six P.M., it’s rarely because I’m
hungry; it’s mostly because I’m bored. I am successful at
keeping this cutoff time way more than 50 percent of the
time, but not close to 100 percent. Obviously, if your
bedtime is later, you can push back your eating cutoff
time; just aim to quit eating two hours prior to when you
go to bed. Most of the time, knowing how great I feel in
the morning if I make my cutoff time is enough to
motivate me to stick with it. When you wake up in the
morning feeling fresh and ready to face the day, instead
of feeling full and tired, you’ll thank me!
Social Smarts
When I think of what kind of curveballs can be thrown at
you as you change your eating habits, at the top of the
list are the well-meaning friends, family, and co-workers
who invite us to lunch, dinner, parties, and potlucks. It
seems everyone picks the least healthful dish they can
find to share at a potluck—casseroles, over-the-top
dips, cheap, tasteless cookies. Early on in my weight
loss, I got to the point where I was practically offended
by the pressure of having to be around foods of poor
quality and outrageous quantity just so I could wish
someone happy birthday.
I’m not trying to sound like a party pooper, but I think the
party has moved far from focusing on the people at an
event—the food is the star. Do people know how to do
anything together besides eat? Here’s what I do
instead: I meet with friends for coffee or tea, or even
better, I invite them over to my house where the good
foods are, or we go for a walk at a park or in the
neighborhood.
We’ve strayed so far from real connection of any sort.
While you’re reconnecting with your body, try to also
reconnect with your friends, family, and neighbors, and
rediscover the beauty of conversation and laughter.
Believe it or not, you don’t have to go out for a pizza or
ice cream (not even frozen yogurt) to enjoy it.
And when it comes to having people over for food, if
you’ve got goodies in the freezer, then you can be ready
for almost anything within a very short period of time.
I’ve pulled stuff out for company on more than one
occasion, and when I make foods from scratch, it’s so
appreciated by my guests that they always leave asking
for a recipe or two.
How to Eat Out
Once you’ve become accustomed to making your own
foods with ingredients you’ve selected and portions
you’ve created, you’ll understand how pleasing it can
be to eat meals at home that don’t have a mysterious
calorie count or ingredients. I used to get frustrated
with having to eat out, but I discovered that I can be
comfortable if I can get, at the very least, a decent
salad and a freshly prepared piece of protein.
Consider the following uncommon common sense
rules if you have to go to a restaurant, or even if it’s
your high-calorie day, but you still want to be smart:
Go to the highest-quality restaurant you can afford and
skip the all-you-can-eat buffet.
If you can’t resist dessert, share a piece of cake with
someone or even the whole table.
Remember that you are paying for the meal—any
ingredients you see on the menu can be made into what
you want instead of what the restaurant staff has decided
you might want. Order a hamburger patty to replace a
processed piece of salty chicken on top of a salad, or you
can order extra shredded cabbage or greens in your
salads.
Avoid cheese and cream sauces, and skip the bread or
chips on the table before your meal.
In general, always order a salad, but stay aware of all
high-calorie additions like candied nuts, cheese, and
salty meats like deli turkey or ham. Big dinner salads
typically have all of these extras, so decide which ones
you can live without—for me I leave off the nuts or
cheese, or both.
If none of the salad choices are good, then look for
something on the menu that you would never cook at
home so you can enjoy a bit of variety, but replace
mashed potatoes or fries with extra veggies. You can
also try sitting next to someone who doesn’t overeat, or
sharing a main course (fries and all) with your sweetie or
a friend.
Since you’ve stocked your house with fresh foods for
your own meals, you can also always put out a tray of
snacks that just happen to be delicious and healthful—
you’ll have plenty of options from which to choose. A
plate with some good cheese, apple slices, olives, nuts,
and fresh vegetables always goes over well with guests.
Good food, real foods, live foods are the ingredients for
a good life, and knowing how to use them will become
first nature with practice.
Staying in the Zone
When you are in the zone, you eat right and you do your
workouts as if they have always been a part of your life
and they will never not be a part of your life. It’s what you
do, it’s who you are, and it officially becomes your
lifestyle—it changes from something you’re doing into
something you are.
I like to think of staying in the zone as similar to staying
within your budget. Have you ever been late paying a
bill, or maybe you just didn’t have the money to pay it on
time? Doesn’t it make you feel bad? It’s a monkey on
your back, and sometimes you may wonder how you got
yourself into that situation. Nothing feels better than
being debt-free, except for maybe being fat-free. Think
of the extra body weight you’ve been carrying as an
unpaid debt to your body, and the only way to pay
yourself back is to lose the weight. You’ve overdrawn
the account by eating too much, and now it’s time to pay
up. During the week, you eat the foods your body needs
and you stay within your caloric budget. At the end of the
week, as long as you’ve stuck to your budget, you get
the treat of losing weight and spending some extra
calories.
Eating on the Move
It’s important that you never leave your house without
knowing what you are going to eat that day, or at the
very least what your next meal is and/or where you are
going to get it. Make no exceptions, and demand this
from yourself and for yourself. If you don’t plan to
succeed, then you automatically plan to fail.
For years, I always put an apple in my bag before I left
the house. Not a bag of apples, just one. I didn’t have a
plan for when I was going to eat it, but it was there when
I didn’t have time to eat a full meal, or when boredom hit
and I felt like I needed to eat something. Lots of times I
would eat an apple on my way home from work so I
wouldn’t arrive home starved and ready to overeat.
When it comes to longer trips away from home, I
recommend packing as much of your own foods as
possible. I rarely travel away from home for too long,
and when I do it’s almost always related to training and
teaching at kettlebell certifications (lucky me—wherever
I go there are kettlebells waiting for me!). When I do
travel, I always pack at the very least a lunch to take with
me. When I first started my diet, it was common for me
to pack two to three days’ worth of food on trips. I would
take frozen soups on the plane with me or check them in
my luggage and stock my hotel fridge with my own
meals. This might sound a bit extreme, but too often
food in airports and on the road can be disappointing.
Sometimes the only choices are complete junk food,
and that can be extremely frustrating when you’re
motivated to stay on track.
At one point, I made an effort to relax about what and
how much of my own foods I was bringing with me, but
the choices were so blatantly salty, adding to the
dehydration that comes along with travel, that I decided
to go back to bringing better foods with me whenever
possible. Once you’ve been in the zone, it always pulls
you back to what is best for your body.
Here are some ideas for what to bring with you when
you travel:
Prepared Cabbage Salads: I will carry one or two of
these with me depending on the length of my trip. Put
your dressing (see Asian Dressing for my recipe that’s
great on cabbage) on the bottom of the container and
the shredded salad mix on top, and then mix it right
before you eat it. Cabbage mixes can last for a long
time, even close to a day without refrigeration. I add
either pre-frozen, diced chicken so it lasts longer in
transit until I eat it, or canned tuna. You can also find
tuna in small, portable packets that you can open right
before eating.
“Live” Trail Mix: I came up with this idea because I
found myself eating too much trail mix from the bulk
foods section at the grocery store—these are
outrageously calorie-dense. Dried fruit and nuts add up
fast and are not nearly as filling or satisfying when you
take into account how small an actual serving size is.
I’m always looking for ways to add fresh veggies to
every meal because they are raw, crisp, and refreshing
—they give this trail mix the “live” element. One of my
absolute favorite snacks is peanut butter, raisins, and
veggie sticks, so I decided to make this snack easy to
eat by the handful by dicing up celery, carrots, and
broccoli stalks into the size of nuts. I add raisins and
peanuts to this, and then I have “live” trail mix! I love this
snack, and it’s perfect to have on a plane flight that lasts
for hours. You can even use the airline-provided
peanuts in the little packets they give you.
Fresh Fruit: Fruits like apples and grapes are easy to
carry with you. If you bring grapes, pack no more than
pound, which is about 100 calories. I also will add
grapes into my salad, so those do double duty acting as
a snack and a salad topper.
Cheeses: I’m not talking about processed slices of
American, but good quality pieces of cheeses like
Manchego, smoked Gouda, or Dubliner. Good cheeses
taste better at room temperature, and they taste great
with a few grapes or a slice of an apple. You can also
pick up Mini Babybels, which are pre-wrapped, have
about 70 calories apiece, and will last awhile in your
bag.
Nuts and Prunes: If I throw these in a little resealable
bag, they’ll last an entire trip, but I have to snack on
them cautiously—it’s far too easy to overdo it with this
type of snack. You can have five prunes or fifteen
almonds for around 100 calories.
You can also pack some crackers or a peanut butter
sandwich made with one slice of bread. Just be careful
with the more calorie-dense foods, as the boredom of
travel can lure you into eating even when you’re not
hungry.
You can often find a lot of these on the road when you’re
traveling—there are grocery stores just about
everywhere. Personally, I have my favorite brands, and it
takes so little time to throw together while still at home, I
prefer to pack everything with me.
Falling in Love with Real Foods
Creating the habits and skills that allow you to become
fast and efficient in food preparation is only part of your
eating habit makeover. Reacquainting your taste buds
with real foods—the foods we naturally crave but have
lost touch with—is an essential part of the process as
well. We are our bodies; they are the physical
representation of ourselves, and they determine our
experience of every moment. Your body can either
distract you from the full experience you are meant to
have, or it can enhance and empower it. The quality of
the building blocks, or the food you put into your body,
directly determines the quality of every bit of you—from
your cells to your organs to your skin, heart, and brain—
isn’t it time you built the body you’ve always dreamed of
?
Tracy’s Food Rule #9: You Can
Soften the Blow
One of the most common complaints people make
when they start to eat real foods is how bland they
taste. I have news for you—if your diet consists mostly
of processed foods, especially fast foods, then you
have been assaulting and deceiving your taste buds
for too long. The food industry pumps processed foods
full of salt, sugars, and fat to keep us coming back for
more. I know how alluring it can be—I was under the
powerful spell of these foods for years. The problem is,
the satisfaction ends in your mouth; your body is left
dealing with the trash that remains.
If you think healthful foods taste bad, then there are
ways of weaning yourself off of over-flavored foods by
diluting them with fresh choices. Diluting over-flavored
foods with healthier ingredients is one of my favorite
ways of getting the taste of calorie-dense convenience
foods without doing all the damage. For instance, if
you love something like McDonald’s cheeseburgers
(as I did), instead of ordering three (as I would), buy
one without the cheese (330 calories with cheese, 250
without), and cut it into a dozen bites, bun and all.
Then, toss it with a salad made of nutritious greens
and a dressing made with 1 tablespoon mayo, 1
tablespoon ketchup, and 2 tablespoons plain yogurt.
By doing this, you double the volume of the
hamburger, or junk food of your choice, while cutting
the calories by two thirds.
You can also try this with sushi: cut each piece into
quarters, toss it with some shredded Chinese
cabbage, a little extra rice vinegar, soy sauce, 1–2
teaspoons of sesame oil, and you triple the volume of
your meal while only adding a few calories.
I also used to use this same strategy when making
healthful but less calorie-conscious meals for my
family. I would take 2 cups of a basic vegetable soup I
had made and add to it whatever main course I had
cooked—lasagna, spaghetti, risotto, tacos—just about
anything tastes good in a vegetable soup. The flavors
enrich the soup, and you never feel that you’ve missed
out on anything. The funny part is, as I started to eat
better, my family began gravitating toward my foods.
12 Recipes for Real Life
As you read through many of these
recipes, you’ll notice how basic a lot of
them are (I’m trying to get you to cook,
not become a chef). I was tempted to go
all out and list many more choices, but
you don’t need more choices, you need
fewer. I suggest reading through this
chapter and selecting one or two of the
recipes to start with.
Once you’ve picked a couple, try to make them over
and over again until you start to feel comfortable
preparing and making them. This way, you’ll build your
confidence and improve your cooking skills as you give
yourself a nice foundation on which to build. The more
often you repeat a recipe, the more likely you will keep
the necessary ingredients on hand, and you’ll find it
makes your weekly shopping easier.
Onion Recipes
Before you scan right over these because you think you
don’t like onions, I’d like to make a quick request: give
onions a chance! Not only do they provide an amazing
base flavor to foods, they also have some surprising
health benefits. Onions have the same anti-inflammatory
properties of garlic, and they’ve been shown to help
reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. They’ve also
been proven to help prevent blood clotting and increase
bone density. My personal mantra is “chop an onion a
day”—following this simple rule will help you get in the
habit of making your own fresh and flavorful foods.
Fresh Salsa
Makes: 2 servings
Salsa counts as 0 calories on the Swing Diet, and once
you taste this version, you might find yourself wanting to
put it on everything. When you get into the habit of
making fresh salsa, you’ll wonder why you ever bought it
premade. Pretty soon all your friends will be asking you
to bring your salsa to parties. Try using just salsa as a
condiment instead of other high-calorie options. You
can also add it to the Guacamole Smoothie (see
Guacamole Smoothie) for some extra flavor or use it as
a dip for Salad on a Stick (see Salad on a Stick).
½ white onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 fresh jalapeño pepper, finely diced
½ bunch cilantro, chopped
1–2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Start with a pinch
of salt and add more until it brings out the flavors.
Caramelized Onion Soup
Makes: 4 servings
You will be slicing, not dicing, onions for this recipe. To
cut onions to be caramelized, cut in half from stem to
root, and then place the flat side down and cut off both
the stem and root. From there, cut into thin slices with
the knife running from stem to root.
6–8 medium yellow onions, sliced (these will cook
down quite a bit)
2 tablespoons olive oil (or 1 tablespoon butter, 1
tablespoon olive oil)
Red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt
4–6 cups chicken stock
To make caramelized onions: Heat large skillet on
medium high. Add olive oil or mixture to the hot pan;
add onions, a good pinch each of salt and red pepper
flakes, and stir to coat. Cook until onions start to soften,
and reduce heat to medium. Continue to cook another
25–30 minutes, turning every 5–8 minutes. If the bottom
of the pan starts to get dark and dry, add a little water
(¼ cup) to loosen and clean up all of the brown bits on
the bottom of the pan (this is called deglazing the pan).
To make soup: Transfer onions to a larger stockpot, if
needed. Add chicken stock and cook until heated
through. You can also make this a heartier main dish by
adding 2–4 ounces of cooked Italian sausage or
roasted chicken, and topping with a handful of croutons
or an ounce of shredded Swiss or Parmesan cheese.
Onion Pepper Sauce and Pasta
Makes: 4 servings
4 tablespoons olive oil (or 2 tablespoons butter, 2
tablespoons olive oil)
6–8 medium yellow onions, sliced
2–4 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ package (8 ounces) spaghetti noodles, cooked
2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
Heat large skillet on medium high. Add olive oil or
mixture to the hot pan; add onions and bell peppers,
and stir to coat. Cook until onions and peppers start to
soften, and reduce heat to medium. Continue to cook
another 25–30 minutes, turning every 5–8 minutes.
When the onions and peppers are just about finished,
deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar, toss with
cooked spaghetti noodles, and top with cheese. Use
the leftover pasta water to thin out the sauce, if needed.
You can also make this into a hearty soup by adding 1–
2 cups of hot chicken stock, 2–4 ounces of protein, and
a handful of spinach, which will wilt in the soup.
Perfect Pasta Noodles
How to cook dry pasta: I never use an entire onepound box of dry pasta because it’s so high in
calories. If you use double the vegetables in the
sauce, you won’t miss the extra noodles. Cook
noodles according to package directions, but what you
won’t find there is how much salt to add. I learned in
Tuscany, Italy, that pasta water is traditionally
seasoned with two tablespoons of salt. I now add this
much salt to 6–8 quarts of pasta water, and since
adopting this secret, my family loves my pasta dishes.
Before draining your pasta, get in the habit of saving at
least ½ cup of the pasta water to thin your sauce if
needed.
Smoothies
Before I decided to lose weight, I would frequent Jamba
Juice, and even though I wasn’t trying to eat fewer
calories at the time, I often got one of the two smoothies
they offered with real yogurt instead of frozen yogurt.
When it was time for me to design my own eating
guidelines, I knew I could make a more nutritious and
better-quality smoothie by using my favorite brand of
yogurt and fresh ingredients. And I knew I could make it
for much cheaper than five dollars a pop.
I never recommend using non-fat dairy products
because the calorie difference isn’t that significant and
low-fat or full-fat dairy options are much more satisfying.
Also, try to use fresh seasonal fruits when possible, and
when they’re ripe, freeze extras to save for later. To
freeze fruits, rinse them off in cold water (dice any fruit
larger than berries), line them up on a sheet of wax
paper so they’re not touching, and then place them in
the freezer for an hour or so. Once they’re solid enough
so they won’t stick together, put them in an airtight
container and freeze for later use.
Plain Yogurt Smoothie
Makes: 1 serving
8 ounces plain yogurt
2 tablespoons honey (or sugar, maple syrup, or
sweetener of your choice)
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries (or amount of fruit
of your choice that equals 100 calories)
½ cup ice
½ cup water
2 tablespoons psyllium fiber (optional)
Blend all items together until you’ve achieved desired
consistency.
Vanilla Yogurt Smoothie
Makes: 1 serving
8 ounces vanilla yogurt
¾–1 cup fresh or frozen fruit
½ cup ice
½ cup water
2 tablespoons psyllium fiber (optional)
Blend all items together until you’ve achieved desired
consistency. You can use any flavor of yogurt you’d like,
but be sure to keep an eye on the calories.
Cottage Cheese Smoothies
Recently I started to make my smoothies with cottage
cheese instead of yogurt because it has more protein
and it gives them a slightly richer flavor and thicker
consistency. Before you think it sounds strange,
consider how delicious a cheesecake is with cottage
cheese or ricotta. A cottage cheese smoothie can be
sweet or savory, like my Guacamole Smoothie. If your
diet is too high in salty foods already, watch the
sodium in cottage cheese because it’s more than what
you will get in yogurt.
Roasted Butternut Squash Smoothie
Makes: 1 serving
Once roasted, winter squashes can be cut into preportioned pieces and then refrigerated or frozen for
future soups and smoothies. Winter squashes are more
starch based and count as a carb serving, like a potato.
Never have more than one starchy carb vegetable
portion per day.
¾ cup cottage cheese
1–2 tablespoons sugar (or brown sugar, honey, or
maple syrup)
½–1 cup roasted butternut squash
½ cup ice
½ cup water
A handful of spinach (optional, but why not?)
Cut 1 butternut squash in half and place face up on a
roasting sheet in a 400°F oven. Cook until soft, when a
fork easily pierces flesh. Depending on the size, this
should take about 30–45 minutes. Seeding it is much
easier after it’s cooked (and more convenient too!).
Cool, then cut up for use in your smoothie or save for
later.
To make smoothie: Remove skin from butternut
squash. Add 1 cup of squash to blender and blend with
remaining ingredients until you’ve achieved desired
consistency.
Guacamole Smoothie
Makes: 1 serving
Of course, you have to take into consideration that
avocado is counted as fat nutritionally, so I never use
more than of a medium avocado. And in this case, I
use low-fat cottage cheese because of the fat in the
avocado.
¾ cup low-fat cottage cheese
medium avocado
½–¾ cup Fresh Salsa
1 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons sugar (or to taste, up to an additional
teaspoon)
Salt
½ cup ice
½ cup water
A handful of spinach or fresh cilantro
Blend all items together until you’ve achieved desired
consistency. You can also add black pepper or a bit of
cayenne pepper if you like a spicy flavor.
Oatmeal and Other Hot Cereals
I love oatmeal because it reminds me of my childhood. I
remember having it for breakfast every morning before
going out to wait for the school bus. Thanks to those
memories, I still like my oatmeal with plain old white
sugar and milk.
I like thick, old-fashioned oats, which are the kind that
take about five minutes to cook. You can have any other
hot cereal like Cream of Wheat, multigrain, or even grits
—whatever makes you happy. I’m not going to argue
about nutritional differences as long as you stay within
the serving size. I always start with two cups of water to
make sure I get a healthy portion without adding more
calories.
Oatmeal or other hot cereals are easy to make ahead
of time even for the whole week if you don’t mind
reheated or microwaved foods. It does get thick, but for
me the pros outweigh the cons.
Don’t be afraid of a little creativity when you eat
oatmeal. When I make mine sweet, it’s kind of like
dessert, so I will have it for dinner—it makes me feel
like I’ve ended my day with dessert, which is always
nice. Since it’s a carb meal, it also helps me sleep
better.
Oatmeal
Makes: 1 serving
2 cups water
½ cup old-fashioned oats
Salt
Cook oatmeal according to package directions. There
are plenty of options for adding flavor:
Sweetener of your choice: As long as you count the
calories, you can use up to 2 tablespoons, or about 90
calories, of a sweetener.
Dried fruit: Dried raisins, blueberries, or cranberries can
take the place of all or some of the sweetener. Or you can
use fresh fruit.
Milk, yogurt, or cottage cheese: Add ¼–½ cup of one of
these choices. Try them all—you might find a new favorite
way to have oatmeal.
Zero-calorie spices: Try cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or
vanilla extract for some extra “free” flavor.
Nuts: Sliced almonds, walnuts, or pecans are great in
oatmeal, but watch the calories.
Savory option: Add 1 ounce of crumbled feta cheese, or
some other hard cheese, and a generous grind of black
pepper.
Meat Proteins
My favorite way to get protein is to prepare large
portions of meats ahead of time and then add them to
soups or salads during the week to make them heartier
and more flavorful. Of course, you can always eat meat
separately as more of an entrée, but be sure to watch
your portions. When preparing meats, it’s best to bring
them out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before
cooking, if possible. Room temperature meats cook
more evenly and don’t dry out as easily.
Poached Chicken Breast
Makes: 2 servings
Roasting a whole chicken is ideal, but simply poaching
some chicken breasts is a good alternative that takes
less time and energy. Chicken breasts are most
commonly sold in halves. The breast is cut down the
center sternum, and the result is two halves, even
though most people think they’re getting a whole breast.
4 cups chicken broth
2 boneless chicken breast halves
Bring chicken broth to a rolling boil and slide chicken
breasts into boiling liquid. Turn off the heat and cover
pot with a tight-fitting lid. Leave covered for 20 minutes
—do not lift cover until 20 minutes has passed, as you
will remove some of the heat. To check doneness,
insert a meat thermometer into chicken; a fully cooked
chicken breast will have an internal temperature of
165°F.
Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Chinese
Marinade
Makes: 8 servings
I always cook two tenderloins at the same time. No
extra effort is needed, and besides, when I make this
recipe I’ve got to race the rest of my family to it before it
disappears. If you have leftovers, they will keep up to
four days in the refrigerator.
cup soy sauce
¼ cup vinegar
2 teaspoons five-spice
3 tablespoon olive oil (1 tablespoon reserved for
browning)
2 teaspoons Chinese hot mustard, or hot sauce and
yellow mustard
1–2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 pork tenderloins with silverskin removed (have the
butcher do this for you)
Mix together first six ingredients and pour into a
resealable bag or bowl. Add pork tenderloins to the
marinade, seal tightly, and place in refrigerator for 2–6
hours.
To make tenderloins: Preheat oven to 400°F.
Remove meat from marinade and place in an ovenproof
skillet. On the stovetop, brown all sides of the
tenderloins in reserved oil, and then transfer to oven.
Check temperature with an instant-read thermometer
after 15 minutes, and then every 5–10 minutes until
internal temperature reaches 155–160°F. Total cooking
time should be around 20 minutes but will vary based on
your oven. Remove from oven and tent with foil. Let
stand 15 minutes.
Tenting Meats
Once you take meat out of the oven or off the grill, it’s
often best to tent it to make sure it stays warm, but it’s
also important to make sure it doesn’t overcook.
Remove meat from heat source, and then place on a
cutting board. To tent, fold a big piece of aluminum foil
over meat and form it into a loose tent that’s draped
about one to two inches above the meat. Pinch the
edges of the foil onto your cutting board so the tent
stays in place. The resting time will vary based on the
type of meat you’ve prepared, but typically it’s about
10–15 minutes.
Butterflied Leg of Lamb with Spice Rub
Makes: 8–10 servings
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon black pepper
2–4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup salt
1 boneless leg of lamb (around 4 pounds)
Mix together first five ingredients. Rub whole leg of lamb
with mixture and refrigerate 4–6 hours or overnight.
To make lamb: Take meat out of fridge at least 30
minutes before cooking. Rinse spice mixture off and
towel dry. Preheat outdoor grill or, if broiling, broiler and
broiler pan. Cook lamb approximately 25–30 minutes,
turning every 6–8 minutes. Check temperature in the
thickest part of meat and remove at 130°F for medium
rare. Tent with foil and let stand 15 minutes before
slicing.
Skirt Steak with Bourbon Marinade
Makes: 6 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons mustard (any kind is fine)
¼ cup bourbon whiskey
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons red wine, or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt, or garlic salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 skirt steaks (about 2–3 pounds)
Mix together all ingredients except for steak and pour
into a resealable bag or bowl. Add skirt steaks to mix,
seal tightly, and place in refrigerator for 2–4 hours or
overnight.
To make steaks: Take steaks out of fridge about 30
minutes before cooking. Remove meat from marinade
and dry off with paper towels. Using a sharp knife, cut
big crosshatches on both sides of the steaks. Broil or
grill for 4–5 minutes on each side. Let rest for 10–15
minutes and cut across the grain into thin slices.
Salads
Before I turned thirty-four—when I learned to cook—I
had never bought a head of cabbage or even knew
what one looked like. In fact, I had never bought a lot of
the ingredients in these recipes before I learned how to
cook. I couldn’t identify most fresh vegetables by sight,
much less fresh herbs. What I finally discovered is that
there are some incredible flavors and textures out there
to be experienced that can completely change your
definition of “salad.” I hope you’ll be open and
adventurous when it comes to trying new vegetables.
Some of the best salads are made from vegetables that
people traditionally only eat cooked. For example,
cauliflower, asparagus, and beets are all delicious raw.
Raw veggie salads are perfect for a traveling lunch
because they stay crisp longer without refrigeration and
taste better at room temp.
Smart Salad Prep
To help with food preparation for salads (and other
recipes as well), I recommend investing in a
mandoline or V-slicer if you don’t have a food
processor with a slicing blade. I like the one made by
OXO—it is a must for pre-shredding jobs.
You can also use a basic vegetable peeler to prepare
some vegetables. I often use one to make carrot
ribbons for my salads. Just do a quick swipe to peel
the skin off, and then keep peeling and let the long
strips drop into your salad mix. This works to shred
cabbage too, if you’re only making one serving.
These days most grocery stores carry packages of
pre-shredded cabbage and broccoli in addition to all
kinds of prepackaged salad greens and prepped
vegetables, so you can always go that route if you
have to. Either way, no excuses!
Basic Cabbage Salad Mix
Makes: 3–4 servings
This is a perfect everyday salad mix that will serve as a
base salad to most of the other salad recipes you’ll find
here. I prefer cabbage as the main ingredient in this
salad because it’s flavorful and has a fantastic crunch to
it. I’ll make this mix and pre-portion into containers to
keep in the refrigerator. Then, I’ll make single-serving
salads from those portions all week—the salad stays
fresh and crisp as long as you don’t pre-dress it. Tasty,
simple, and best of all, extremely quick!
1 head green cabbage, shredded
½ head red cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1–2 fresh jalapeños, diced small
Cilantro or any fresh herb of your choice (optional)
Add all ingredients to a large bowl and toss.
A Tempting Salad
This is the one of my most requested recipes. It’s a
favorite of mine, and it’s sure to become a favorite of
yours. Don’t be surprised when your co-workers walk by
and, once they get a whiff of your salad, ask: “Did you
make that? It smells delicious!”
Chicken Curry Coleslaw with Curry Dressing
Makes: 1 large serving (salad); 6 servings (dressing)
3–4 cups loosely packed Basic Cabbage Salad Mix
2–4 ounces chicken breast, diced
¼ cup golden raisins, or 3–4 ounces grapes, halved
(optional)
For dressing:
8 ounces plain low-fat yogurt
4 ounces mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
1–2 tablespoons curry powder
2–4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
Whisk together all dressing ingredients. Pour – cup
over cabbage mixture and toss, coating the vegetables
and chicken. Store unused dressing in refrigerator; it
keeps for at least one week.
Turkey Waldorf Coleslaw with Blue Cheese
Dressing
Makes: 1 large serving (salad); 6 servings (dressing)
3–4 cups loosely packed Basic Cabbage Salad Mix
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
½–1 apple, diced (or 3–4 ounces grapes, or ¼ cup
dried cranberries)
2–4 ounces turkey breast, diced
For dressing:
8 ounces low-fat yogurt or buttermilk
2 ounces mayonnaise
3 ounces blue cheese
1 garlic clove, crushed
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
Whisk together all dressing ingredients. Add
cup
dressing to salad mixture and toss to coat. Store
unused dressing in refrigerator; it keeps for at least one
week.
Broccoli Crunch Salad with Tuna
Makes: 1 large serving
Did you know that a whole can of tuna is only around
150 calories? I think a big mistake dieters make (I know
I’ve made this mistake more than once) is to try to cut
calories too low. What happens then is you get so
hungry, you give in to something you didn’t even want in
the first place. So remember—you have to eat to lose
weight.
1 can tuna packed in water, drained
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1–2 cups loosely packed Basic Cabbage Salad Mix
½–¾ cup chopped broccoli
1 serving grapes (4 ounces); or 1 small apple, diced;
or 1 ounce golden raisins or dried cranberries
2 tablespoons low-calorie dressing (not to exceed 40
calories per tablespoon)
In a bowl, mix tuna with mayonnaise. Then add to
cabbage salad mix and distribute throughout. I usually
add my favorite low-calorie Asian peanut dressing for a
bit of extra flavor.
Raw Cauliflower Salad with Black Beans, Corn,
and Tomato
Makes: 4 large servings
This salad is great with fancy-shmancy baby tomatoes
from the farmers’ market. If you can make it with
seasonal, fresh roasted corn, it will be even tastier. This
is when a food processor, mandolin, or V-slicer will
come in handy to finely slice cauliflower.
1 head of cauliflower, sliced super fine
1–2 ears of fresh corn, roasted and cut from cob
½ cup black beans
1 basket baby tomatoes, or 1 cup diced red tomato
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Squeeze of lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1–2 teaspoons sugar, if needed
Mix cauliflower, corn, beans, and tomatoes together in a
large bowl. Add vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil, and
toss salad. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and take a
sample bite; add sugar as needed to bring out corn and
tomato flavors.
Asparagus, Red Onion, and Pecorino Salad
Makes: 2 servings
This is a favorite salad I learned from Chef Ann Burrell
on her show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. I’ve
modified it to fit better into the parameters of my diet.
This salad is best in spring when asparagus is in
season and you can find the really thin and tender
bunches.
2 bunches tender asparagus, raw and thinly sliced
½ red onion, finely diced
cup pecorino Romano cheese, grated
2–4 tablespoons red wine vinegar (can add more as
needed)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Toss all ingredients together; cover and place in
refrigerator at least 2 hours to let the flavors blend.
Asparagus, Mushroom, and
Pecorino Salad
Here’s another great-tasting twist on this simple recipe:
substitute sherry vinegar for the red wine vinegar,
diced shallot for the red onion, and add sliced
mushrooms. Delicious!
Red and Gold Raw Beet Salad
Makes: 2 servings
Keep the two beet colors separate until just before you
eat it, or you will end up with only red beet salad. Once
you start to incorporate fresh vegetables as the base of
your meals, you’ll begin to appreciate the beautiful
colors of natural foods—they always say your plate
should look like a rainbow. This salad is gorgeous to
look at and delicious to eat. The grating disk on your
food processor makes quick work of this, but I use a
simple box cheese grater—just watch your fingers.
1 medium red beet, grated
1 medium golden beet, grated
1 carrot, grated
2–3 green onions, thinly sliced
½ bunch of the beet greens, cut into thin ribbons
1 fresh jalapeño, finely diced (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)
¾ cup fresh pineapple chunks, or 4–6 chopped dates
(my favorite sweet add-ins)
Separate beet stems from the leaves, and wash and dry
beet greens. To prep the greens, stack the leaves one
on top of the other lengthwise and cut across the width
into thin ribbons. Add all ingredients to a large bowl and
toss. Drizzle with ¼ cup Asian Dressing (see below)
and mix thoroughly. I like to add grilled prawns, chicken,
or Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Chinese
Marinade (see Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin with
Chinese Marinade) to this salad.
Asian Dressing
Makes: 4 servings
This dressing is oil-based and should be measured to
ensure you don’t use too much. It can be made in the
food processor, and it’s a favorite of mine to dress my
Red and Gold Raw Beet Salad (see above). It’s also a
great addition to any slaw made with Chinese (Napa)
cabbage or any type of radish.
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated ginger
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1–2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
1 teaspoon Sriracha or Tabasco, if you want it spicy
¼ cup peanut oil (or whatever oil you prefer)
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
Mix garlic, ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and hot
sauce together. Drizzle in peanut oil and sesame oil;
whisk together. This dressing can be stored in the
refrigerator one week. As a general rule, any dressing
made with fresh ingredients like garlic or onion will last
about one week.
Basic Caesar Salad
Makes: 1 large serving (salad); 6 servings (dressing)
As good as a Basic Caesar Salad is, throwing in some
leftover grilled or roasted veggies makes it amazing. I
will gladly pass on the croutons and Parmesan cheese
in trade for roasted or grilled veggies.
4 cups chopped romaine lettuce, loosely packed
2–4 ounces chicken or turkey breast, diced
For dressing:
8 ounces plain yogurt
4 ounces mayonnaise
2–4 tablespoons lemon juice
2–4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped, or 2 tablespoons
anchovy paste
Mix lettuce and chicken in a bowl. Combine all dressing
ingredients together in a separate bowl and whisk until
it has a smooth consistency. Pour – cup over salad
mixture and toss, coating the vegetables and chicken.
Store unused dressing in refrigerator; it keeps for at
least one week. If you are using anchovy filets, add them
to the top of the salad.
Caesar Options
You can find anchovy paste in the Italian food section
of most stores. Before you think that you don’t like
anchovy, try it first. There’s so little anchovy in this
dressing, it’s added mostly for its saltiness and only
has a hint of fish flavor. If you don’t like it after you try it,
you can use capers or caper paste (you will find it next
to the anchovy paste), or finely chopped kalamata
olives.
The Best-Tasting Vegetables You’ve
Ever Had
I’m probably the only woman in America who doesn’t
have a husband who grills. And because of that, I don’t
own a grill, which is pretty outrageous when you live in
California. Luckily, I have a stovetop grill, which can
make just as tasty vegetables. If you don’t have either, I
suggest picking up a basic grill pan. Grilling couldn’t get
any easier, and when you cook vegetables this way,
they’re crispy and caramelized and the taste is out of
this world. The only thing you should be careful about is
the amount of olive oil you use on your veggies before
grilling.
I usually prep my vegetables and put them all in a large
stainless mixing bowl. To this I will add a generous
amount of salt and a good pinch or two of red pepper
flakes. I then measure 2 tablespoons olive oil and
drizzle it in a thin stream over and around the veggies
as well as close to the inside rim of the bowl. The oil
drizzles down the sides of the bowl and begins to gently
coat the vegetables. I mix, stir, and massage them with
the oil using my hands.
Remember to preheat your grill—you should always
hear a sizzle when you place your veggies down. Sliced
zucchini, bell peppers, onion, asparagus, and corn can
take as little as a few minutes on each side. To roast
corn, you can place whole shucked cobs on the gas
flame (without any oil or other added fat) on your stove
top and turn every few minutes, cooking and turning until
some of the kernels blacken. Let cool and cut kernels
away from cob. You can do the same on an outdoor
grill.
Don’t be afraid of getting a little creative—vegetables
like chard, lettuce, and cabbage taste great grilled. For
lettuce and cabbage, cut heads in half or quarters,
leaving the core intact (this is what holds it together).
For kale, you can just cut or tear large leaves into two to
three pieces. Drizzle them with a bit of olive oil, salt, and
stick them right on a hot grill or grill pan for a few
minutes on each side. Chop when cool enough to
handle.
Grilled Vegetable and Quinoa Salad
Makes: 4 servings
This salad is so simple and quick. I’ll give you my
favorite combination of veggies, but you can make your
own substitutions as you discover what vegetables you
like roasted or on the grill. Quinoa can be replaced with
brown rice, lentils, or beans, but just be sure to load up
on the veggies and not the grains and legumes.
2 cups cooked quinoa
1–2 ears of corn, grilled or roasted, kernels cut from
the cob
2 small green and yellow zucchini squash, sliced ¼
inch lengthwise for grilling, then diced large for
salad
1 6-ounce package baby salad greens or baby
spinach
2 tomatoes, diced (or 1 basket baby tomatoes,
halved)
1 ounce crumbled feta cheese
1–2 tablespoons olive oil
1–2 lemons, juiced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Make quinoa according to package directions and
keep warm while you prepare the other veggies for the
salad. Grill or roast corn and squash, and add with the
tomatoes to salad greens. The oil on the grilled veggies
will help wilt the baby greens and/or spinach. Add
quinoa, crumble cheese over top, and drizzle with olive
oil—you won’t need much more because there’s oil on
the vegetables (be sure that between the oil in the
veggies and the oil drizzled in, you use no more than
two tablespoons of olive oil). Add lemon juice and salt
and pepper.
Substitutes or Additions:
• Cucumber
• Radish, thinly sliced
• Grilled or roasted red bell pepper
• Asparagus
• Grilled scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• Blanched green beans
• Queso fresco or cotija cheese (instead of feta)
A Better Grain
Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain; an
average of just over 16 percent, with some varieties
having more than 20 percent protein. Rice is only 7.5
percent protein, and wheat is 14 percent. Quinoa is
also unique in that it’s what’s known as a complete
protein, which means it contains all of the essential
amino acids. Plus, it’s gluten-free.
Soups and Stews
The difference between soup and stew is that soups
tend to have more broth and stews tend to have more
meat and vegetables, making them a bit heartier. Most
soups and stews begin with a combination of onion,
celery, and carrot, otherwise known as mirepoix (see
Knife Skills for more on this French term). Then you add
in garlic and spices, and this creates the first layer of
flavor of just about every soup or stew recipe, no matter
the country of origin. This is why it’s so important to
know how to prep vegetables—they’ll be the base of all
your most delicious meals.
A chili, on the other hand, is made with … well, chilies. If
you add a jalapeño pepper, a pasilla pepper, or a red
bell pepper to a vegetable soup base and toss in some
chili powder, you have chili. Of course, you can make it
heartier and better tasting by adding tomatoes, meat,
beans, and more spices. I’m not trying to define a
traditional chili—for our purposes, the only requirement
is that it tastes good and spicy, and that it’s nutritious
(which will come naturally since you’re using real
ingredients).
Basic Veggie Soup
Makes: 4 servings
½ head cabbage, sliced into ½-inch ribbons
1 small onion, finely diced
2 carrots, small dice
2–3 celery stalks, medium dice
½ bunch Tuscan kale, leaves separated, small dice
(stems are optional)
1–2 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed
2 cups chicken stock (I use homemade)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sauté onion, carrot, celery, and kale stems (if using
them) in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add cabbage and stir to
coat with oil; cook for another 5 minutes. When the
vegetables begin to caramelize, add the garlic.
Continue cooking for 1 minute, and then add stock.
Deglaze the bottom of the pan (with stock), add in
chopped kale leaves, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat
to low and partially cover for 15 min.
Make it Southwest: Add 1 tablespoon of oregano and
1 tablespoon ground cumin at the same time you add
the garlic. When soup is done, add 2–4 ounces of
cooked chicken or pork, and ½ cup black beans and/or
corn per serving. Finish with a dollop of yogurt, sour
cream, or cheese.
Make it Italian: Add 1 tablespoon oregano and 1
teaspoon dried rosemary, or 1 tablespoon Italian
seasoning at the same time you add the garlic. Add 1
small can diced tomatoes and 1–2 small zucchini,
diced, along with stock. When soup is finished, add 2–4
ounces of cooked Italian sausage or chicken. You can
also add ½ cup of cooked white beans per serving.
Make it Indian: Add 2 teaspoons garam masala or
curry powder at the same time as the garlic. Add 1 can
light coconut milk and 1 small can tomatoes when you
add stock. If using uncooked lentils, add two cups
additional stock or water and 1 cup green or red lentils,
rinsed; cook for an additional 25 minutes. Add chopped
cauliflower florets in the last 15 minutes of cooking time.
When soup is done, add 2–4 ounces of cooked lamb,
chicken, or turkey. Watch the coconut milk, as even the
light version can be high in calories.
Red Chili
Makes: 6 servings
Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients you
see here. This chili is amazing, and it only gets better as
the flavors meld together over a couple days. It also
freezes and thaws out for a perfect quick lunch or
dinner. Top with freshly chopped onions or a tablespoon
of grated cheese.
1 pound ground beef, pork, turkey, chicken, or a
combination of any of these
1–2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 red bell pepper, small dice
2–4 jalapeño peppers, small dice
1–2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons chili powder or chipotle powder
(chipotle powder has a smoky flavor)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon each of dried thyme and fennel (only if
using pork or poultry)
1–2 canned chipotle peppers (individual peppers, not
1–2 cans; these will be removed before serving)
1 small can diced tomatoes, including liquid
2–4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can of cooked beans (black, red, or pinto)
4 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper, to taste
In a deep skillet, brown meat(s). Then remove from pan,
drain fat, and set aside. In the same pan, heat olive oil.
When hot, add onion, celery, carrots, red bell pepper,
and jalapeño peppers; sauté for 5–6 minutes or until
soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add dry spices
and chipotle peppers, and once fragrant (another 1–2
minutes), stir in diced tomatoes, tomato paste, cooked
beans, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat,
and simmer 15–20 minutes.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Remove 2 cups of chili
and puree in a blender or food processor (this will
thicken the chili); return to pot. Add cooked ground meat
and reheat, if necessary.
Pureed Veggie Soups
Makes: 4 servings
I’m going to give you the easiest of the easy methods
for making pureed soups, and then a method that’s just
slightly more time consuming.
4–6 cups veggies, cut into ½–1-inch pieces (summer
squash, zucchini, yellow squash, pattypans,
crookneck, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato, butternut
squash)
2–4 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper, to taste
Put cut vegetables into a large pot with enough chicken
stock to barely cover, and cook until vegetables are
tender; check with a fork after about 10 minutes. Let
veggies cool until you can safely add them to a blender.
Blend and add more stock until you reach the desired
consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
To make when you have more time: In a stockpot,
sauté mirepoix (see Knife Skills) in 1 tablespoon olive
oil until onion is translucent. Add prepped vegetables
and chicken stock to cover. Proceed with remaining
steps of previous recipe. This method doesn’t take
much more time, especially if you already have your
onion, celery, and carrots prepped. I think the extra
flavor that the mirepoix provides is worth it.
Snacks
Most of my snacks are small, flavor-packed bites that
combine salty and sweet flavors. I have found that the
more I can activate my palate with different types of
flavor, the more satisfied I feel with a food.
Peanut Butter and Raisins
Makes: 1 serving
A little bit of peanut butter goes a long way, but be
careful with the amount of peanut butter because it’s
easy to turn 1 tablespoon into more, and then it
becomes a meal instead of a snack.
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 ounce raisins
Sprinkle raisins onto peanut butter and eat. Even though
it’s just one tablespoon of peanut butter, the full-fat flavor
is extremely satisfying to the taste buds. This is my
favorite snack to eat with celery, carrot, and broccoli
sticks.
Prunes with Honey, Almonds, and Coconut
Makes: 1 serving
I recommend buying the unsulphured prunes because
they’re not as moist, which makes it a bit more difficult
to overeat them. Prunes are roughly 20 calories each,
and if you add a nut and some honey, the count goes up
by about 12 calories for each treat.
2–4 prunes
1 teaspoon honey, for drizzle
2–4 almonds, or 1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut
Kosher salt, to sprinkle
To make this sweet treat, drizzle a bit of honey over the
prunes, stick an almond on top of each one, or sprinkle
unsweetened coconut on top of the honey. A pinch of
kosher salt finishes it off nicely.
Maple Cinnamon Parfait
Makes: 1 serving
It always surprises me that 6 ounces of plain yogurt has
so few calories, only about 90–120. You can add a
handful of raisins or nuts (watch the calories) to this if
you’d like a bit of added texture.
4 ounces plain yogurt
4 ounces cottage cheese
1 tablespoon sweetener (maple syrup, brown sugar,
or sugar)
Dash of vanilla extract (optional)
Cinnamon, to taste
Combine first four ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Top with cinnamon.
Fruit Smarts
To me, apples are the most satisfying fruit; they’re
delicious and filling thanks to the fibrous skin and
dense texture. When choosing fruit for a snack, I like to
get the biggest bang for my calorie buck. Oranges are
just too high in calories and not enough bulk. Pears
are a good choice, but like most fruit, best only when in
season. Stone fruits like peaches and nectarines in
the summer are always delicious, but if you can’t stop
at one, then it’s best to keep walking. Strawberries and
blueberries are great choices, but just be sure to
measure them beforehand. Cherries and grapes are
the two I know I need to watch, which is why I buy them
only in the quantity I want to eat. If you buy a pound,
you’ll most likely eat a pound, which is 400 calories.
Salad on a Stick
Making Salad on a Stick is a great way to hone your
knife skills. Once cleaned and prepped, fresh veggies
from the market will last over a week in the fridge.
Keep them in a plastic bag with a slightly damp paper
towel inside, which will provide just enough moisture to
keep them crisp. Once you have your knife and cutting
board out, pre-cut all the veggies you have time and
energy for. There’s nothing nicer than reaching into
your fridge on your way out the door and having fresh
foods at the ready. Remember: if you don’t plan to
succeed, you plan to fail.
You can make a beautiful spread by trying any and all
farmers’ market vegetables you may have never had
before. Some of my favorite discoveries are: French
radishes, yellow and purple carrots, fresh green beans,
orange cauliflower florets, thin asparagus stalks, and
yellow bell peppers.
Cut all veggies into sticks ½ inch wide and 3–4 inches
long. You can eat as much as you like until the dip
runs out. A few vegetable options:
• Celery
• Carrots
• Red bell pepper
• Baby tomatoes
• Radishes
• English cucumber
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Green beans
• Asparagus
The last four suggestions can be eaten raw or
blanched or steamed slightly, making them more
tender. To blanch, bring a large pot of water to a boil,
submerge one type of vegetable at a time for 2–4
minutes. Rinse immediately under cold water to stop
further cooking.
Dip This Way
To make the dips for my Salad on a Stick, I use one
whole container of non-fat FAGE Greek yogurt, to which
I add 1 tablespoon of a fat, such as olive oil,
mayonnaise, or avocado, and tons of flavor using low-or
no-calorie flavor additions.
To prepare any of these dips, simply mix the ingredients
in the order they’re listed, adding the acid (lime or
lemon juice) and salt at the end and tasting to adjust the
flavor the way you like it. Each of these dips has about
200 calories and can be enjoyed as one serving or split
into two.
Salsa Dip
6–7 ounces plain yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil or mayonnaise
¾ cup Fresh Salsa
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 lime, juiced, to taste
Salt
Caesar Dip
6 ounces plain yogurt
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2–4 teaspoons anchovy paste, or minced anchovies
1 garlic clove, pressed
1–2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 lemon, juiced
Basil Tomato Dip
6 ounces plain yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil, or mayonnaise
1 handful basil, minced
2–3 sundried tomatoes, minced (if packed in oil,
reduce olive oil)
1 garlic clove, pressed
Salt
Avocado Lime Dip
6 ounces plain yogurt
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 jalapeño, minced
½ small avocado, mashed
1 lime, juiced, to taste
Goat Cheese and Chive Dip
6 ounces plain yogurt
1 ounce soft goat cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1 lemon, juiced
Salt
Caramelized Onion Dip
6 ounces plain yogurt
½ cup caramelized onions (see To make
caramelized onions; omit red pepper flakes)
½ ounce feta cheese
A splash of red wine vinegar
Salt
Make Them Your Own
Reuse the recipes I’ve provided for you as often as you
can—the more often you make a recipe, the more
inclined you are to memorize it quickly. Of course, this is
easiest when you pick two or three to really master first.
The goal for you should be to eventually cook without a
recipe, as this will save you tons of time prepping and
cooking. With practice, you will develop the confidence
to make the recipe your own by making changes that
reflect your personal tastes. Aim to become fast and
efficient at feeding yourself—this will not only ensure
long-term weight loss, but it will also give you the gift of
a lifetime of health.
PART FOUR
You Won the Lottery
13 The First Day of the Rest of Your
Life
I always knew I was special. Before you
think I’m being arrogant, I want to say
this: I think everyone is special, and I
think each and every one of you knows
it. Somehow we lose sight of this
knowledge—maybe it starts early in our
childhood with our parents or teachers
reminding us of what we don’t know or
what we can’t do, or maybe it doesn’t
happen until later in life.
Either way, this sense of specialness gets buried within
and it begins to feel more natural to believe the doubts
and insecurities you have floating around in your head.
But guess what? You don’t have to believe those
destructive thoughts anymore—you are amazing and
you know it. With The Swing!, you’ve harnessed the
power to change and your greatness has burst onto the
scene with all its incredible energy, strength, and
confidence—there’s no looking back.
After my transformation, the feeling of good fortune
grew even stronger. I felt so lucky that I used to think I
was going to win the lottery—I used to buy tickets
literally convinced that I was going to win. One day, I
realized it wasn’t the lottery that I was going to win, but
something profoundly awesome was definitely going to
happen to me. I felt so strongly about this, but I never
concerned myself with the details of how or what exactly
was going to happen to me, or for me—I just knew.
On one of my walks, I was thinking about this feeling,
and it struck me that I had already won—something
profound had happened to me—I went through an
extraordinary life transformation. I had transformed
myself in a way few ever do, at an age when many
people have surrendered the hope of ever truly
changing their lives. I was a woman in my forties, I felt
more alive than ever before, I was more hopeful about
my future than I had ever been, I was looking better and
feeling more confident than I ever had … this was better
than the lottery—in fact, it’s something that no amount of
money can buy.
These days, I think of it more as having discovered a
pot of gold because I can look back and see the path I
traveled to get here. When I look back, I see the smaller
rewards and incentives that kept me going—the little
totes of gold—that led up to an endless fortune. I used
to think this was a secret, hidden path that only
exclusive members knew about, but it’s not, and it’s a
path you’re now on, too. You are on this path because
you made the choice to honor the gift of your physical
body and to treat it with the type of love and attention it
deserves—to stay on the path, you simply have to
continue making the same choices to eat real foods
and swing a kettlebell; that’s certainly what’s kept me
here.
Life Without Walls
I never identified with the fat girl I saw in the mirror, and I
wondered my whole life why God had made this
mistake of putting me in the wrong body. When I used to
see my fat reflection, I often found myself doing a double
take in disbelief. Being a fat child was like waking up
Christmas morning only to discover that Santa had
forgotten you, except it happened every morning.
I’m often puzzled when others have the opposite
experience—they see a fat person where there isn’t one
anymore. There are a lot of people who choose to
identify with being fat when they are no longer so.
Maybe it’s their insecurity or a feeling of being
undeserving, or maybe they are looking for sympathy or
commiseration. Either way, staying married to your
overweight identity when you’ve already separated is
just a way of staying stuck—once you’ve emerged from
outside of the shell, don’t let the thoughts and trappings
of your “before” body keep you mentally stuck. You are
free.
If you struggle with breaking free from negative thought
patterns, you are not alone—they can be more stubborn
than unwanted pounds, but they can be lost just the
same, too. Even years after I completely transformed
my body, I still fought the labels I had placed on myself in
my head; labels like “compulsive eater” or “binge eater”
stuck around for much longer than I’d like to admit. The
key to overcoming any self-defeating terms or phrases
like these that you may have for yourself is consistency
—you must consistently and repeatedly deny them
anytime they enter your thoughts. When I stopped
listening to those labels, they stopped showing up in my
actions for good. Instead of thinking it was natural to
believe the worst about myself, I began to believe the
best about myself, and that’s when my thoughts were
finally as healthy and fit as my body.
To Cheat or Not to Cheat
Because weight loss comes from creating a calorie
deficit, you may be wondering if you can let calorie
monitoring and the high-calorie day go once you reach
your goal. I don’t like to think of myself as forever
needing to monitor what I eat, but I do like the idea of
keeping data that can give me explanations for changes
in my body. I don’t need data to tell me when I’ve gained
a little weight, though—I can tell based on how my
clothes fit me. And I don’t really need data to tell me why
my clothes feel tighter—I know it’s because I’m eating
too many calories, whether I like it or not. Over the
years, I have discovered that drifting too far from the
principles that changed my life can lead to trouble, or at
the very least lead me in the opposite direction of where
I know I feel best. Let me tell you a little precautionary
tale.
I maintained my lowest average body weight for about
three years, and then over the course of a year, I gained
back 20 pounds. I lived with the extra weight and felt
only mildly upset about it, still never missing a workout
or yoga practice. But finally, I reached a point where I
had to get a better grasp on what was happening to my
body, so I went back to the facts, to the science.
Through my detective work, I discovered that I had
started to eat willy-nilly—that is, without a plan. I was still
eating my own homemade, high-quality, nutritious
foods, but I was eating too much and giving myself too
many choices. As soon as I went back to what I already
knew, which was to eat the same basic foods in the
same basic portions most days of the week, this
automatically brought me back to my general calorie
range, and 10 pounds dropped off just like that. What
about the other 10 pounds?
A little more digging into my eating habits, including
looking back at old food journals, helped me realize that
I had gotten away from cycling my calories, or including
a high-calorie day. I went back to the weekly highcalorie day, and another 3 pounds fell off.
The other 7? I’ve decided they can come and go, which
is something I never thought I would say. I can say this
now because I’m within striking range of my lowest
average body weight, and because six years of
consistent training has built some substantial “muscle
density” on my body—that means that even though I
may technically weigh more, I’m leaner and stronger
than I’ve ever been. I’ve grown personally to the point
where I know I make the decision of my body weight,
and no one else decides that for me. I’m no longer in the
dark—I know I have the knowledge, skills, and power to
create the body I want, whenever I want, and I have. It’s
a completely liberating experience.
A lot of people will refer to where you are now as the
maintenance phase, but maintenance sounds so clinical
and dull to me—you’ve worked your butt off and gotten
to that pot of gold, and now you’re just maintaining? You
have just started to truly live! You are in the fabulous
forever phase—this is permanent. To make sure you
stay in this place, rely on your knowledge, and keep
your awareness intact—don’t drift too high up into the
clouds to the point where you forget to apply the rules.
Don’t think of them as chains but as lifelong partners in
extending your prime.
Reflections on Your Former Self
Not too long ago, I found an old pair of jeans that I wore
when I weighed 250 pounds. I couldn’t believe my body
used to be big enough to fit into them, but I didn’t look at
them and feel shame or embarrassment. When I saw
those jeans or I see pictures of myself from so many of
those years, I think about how grateful I am for having
lost the weight because it allowed me to discover my
true self. I am finally, and will forever be, the new and
improved version of the best me.
The best part of my whole transformation is that
everyone who knew me while I was fat doesn’t
remember me that way—not even I do. Although some
friends who haven’t seen me in awhile aren’t used to
recognizing me the way I am now, it’s not because I’m
no longer fat, it’s because of my energy. Everything I
present to the world is different, not just my physical
appearance. I’m so happy, confident, and filled with life
—that’s why they don’t recognize me. How cool is that?
As you process and engage in life from a new
perspective, honor and appreciate yourself for the
progress you’ve made, for the progress you make every
day. Never look back with regret or self-loathing;
consider instead that every step you’ve taken has
gotten you to where you are today. You can’t pick and
choose which parts of yourself or your life to neglect or
deny because they all have played a role in creating the
incredible you of today.
Perfectly Imperfect
So how do you avoid falling into old patterns? By
establishing or creating new, more exciting, and more
rewarding patterns. You know, there was a time shortly
after I started my diet that I had the thought of never,
ever being able to go back to the way I used to eat. I
thought about never again eating my everyday lunch of
three cheeseburgers and six chocolate chip cookies,
and I felt sad for a few moments. I felt like I had just been
sentenced to a lifetime of no fun in punishment for my
decades of bad behavior.
The sadness passed once I realized how ridiculous it
was to mourn the passing of an extremely destructive
habit. It dawned on me that it was a lot like feeling sad
about the end of an abusive or bad relationship. It’s true
you might feel sad at first, but then once you’ve met the
person of your dreams, you forget all about the loser you
wasted so much of your life with. And if every once in
awhile, the jerk gives you a call—hang up! You already
know where it’s going to lead, and it’s nowhere good.
Now that you have the body of your dreams, you’ll find
yourself not even entertaining the idea of going back to
that destructive and neglectful life you used to lead. You
have a new love, and it’s yourself and your new lifestyle.
Staying in the Zone
Your transformation can be radical and quick, and with it
will come the discovery of a whole new physical world.
Deciding to try yoga, or training for a walking, biking, or
running fundraiser, or even simply wearing sleeveless
shirts and trendy workout clothes, aren’t just
experiences available to other people—it’s your turn to
have those choices in your life. The more you step into
this world of health and fitness and explore it, the more
certain you are to stick to your healthy habits.
This doesn’t mean you have to start running half
marathons or swimming through the ocean, but you
could if you wanted to. I’m now not only a kettlebell
athlete but a yogini too. The question is: who do you
want to be?
I like to say that I only took up yoga because I couldn’t
train with the kettlebell every day, but that’s really only
part of it. The best part of having a regular yoga practice
is being able to say, “I have a regular yoga practice!” I
never thought I would have a body that could do yoga
regularly and do it well. The day I walked into my first
yoga class, I felt no intimidation and I discovered
another way to express my newfound confidence. I have
the confidence now to take on anything my heart or
body desires.
This kind of confidence makes you better at everything
you do, whether you have a professional career, are at
home raising a family and managing a household, or
you’re doing all of the above. Before I lost over 100
pounds, my kids couldn’t care less about how I looked
—they just wanted a ride to school. After I lost the
weight and got in shape, they always pointed me out to
their friends saying, “That’s my mom!” Look around you
—at your co-workers, at other parents, at people in the
grocery store—wherever you are in the outside world,
look around and take notice of how many people you
see who are of normal weight—and beyond that, who
truly look healthy and fit. There aren’t that many, which is
a shame, but I know you can become one of them. Once
you join the club, it will become even more obvious.
Keeping your membership is up to you, but you will
discover it comes with some incredible, endless
rewards.
The rewards are what will keep you inspired, and you
will find inspiration comes in many forms. It may come in
the form of compliments. It may come in the form of
performance, whether it’s feeling good about doing
something new or getting better at something. It may
come in the form of a new pair of jeans. Or it may come
in the form of a clean bill of health from your doctor.
There is no end to the possibilities.
The greatness doesn’t stop there because from
inspiration comes motivation, and motivation is
contagious. When you travel the path and you reach the
pot of gold, you’ll see what I mean—it’s not something
you want to keep to yourself. You will want to shout it out
and wave your friends over. You are now the inspiration
to others.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, thanks to Timothy Ferriss for being
the generous person that you are, for leading the way
and being the inspiration for so many, including me. I’m
incredibly grateful for having the chance to work with
you. Many, many thanks and much appreciation.
To Pavel Tsatsoline, Chief Instructor RKC, the man
responsible for the popularity of kettlebells in this
country today: I will always be grateful that you thought to
share my story with Tim, proving that a former fat girl
can turn into a real deal kettlebell athlete. Thank you for
developing your RKC system; it helped me change my
life in a way I never thought possible.
Thank you to Steve Hanselman, my agent (I like saying
that!), and Julia Serebrinsky, for your unbounded
confidence in me, and for taking a risk on an unknown—
you brought the dream of this book to life. Without your
professional guidance I would not have been able to
share this miracle with so many, and so quickly.
To Gretchen Lees, quite possibly the smartest woman I
know. Through your tireless work and commitment, you
brought greater clarity to my voice without ever
compromising truth. You are an amazing writer and truly
a professional. You have come to know me better than
anyone except my husband Mark and you still like me (I
think!). Now, if I could only get you to swing a kettlebell.
To Nancy Hancock, my editor at HarperOne, for
agreeing to that first meeting when she asked me why I
wanted to write this book. “Because I want this for
everyone!” I answered, holding back tears. “This” of
course is the greatest feeling of all—to come alive
again, and in your best possible body. Thank you,
Nancy, for taking the vision of this book and helping
craft it into a powerful and polished piece of work.
To DragonDoor and John DuCane for first publishing
my story about weight loss and kettlebells. Thanks to
you and Pavel for helping to bring the kettlebell to the
forefront with the RKC system, and for educating so
many on the skill of strength.
All of my blog followers, whose support through kind
words and comments you have given me all these years
—thank you for inspiring me!
Thank you to all of my students, whom I consider my
training partners, for believing like I do that confidence
and strength know no age, gender, or weight limits.
To my cooking teachers, who accepted my frantic
emergency phone calls in the middle of recipes gone
wrong. To Ruth, for always reminding me that, “it’s just
cooking”—a phrase I still live by in my kitchen.
To my mother, for being the best mom she could be.
And again, I want to acknowledge my husband Mark, to
whom this book is dedicated. He’s the only man who
has ever mattered in my life and I will forever be his
biggest fan.
Finally, to all the chubby little girls and boys who have
had to sit on the sidelines knowing they are capable of
so much more, and to everyone who has ever felt
underestimated: you know you have greatness within
you—bring it to life and stop waiting for another day—
today is the day!
Appendix A
Appendix B
Use these journals for Workouts #1–5 and #14–15. For
Workouts #6–13, follow instructions directly from the
Shorthand Key in Chapter 9.
About the Author
At the age of forty-one, after having been overweight her
entire life, Tracy Reifkind lost 120 pounds and discovered a
path to lasting transformation using kettlebells. She is now
a sought-after personal trainer and motivation and nutrition
coach who was featured in Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Body.
In 2006, she became a certified Russian kettlebell
instructor. Since then, she has developed a unique training
program that works for anyone, at any fitness level, featured
in her DVD “Programming the Kettlebell Swing.” Reifkind
lives in California with her husband, Mark. They have two
grown sons.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on
your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Credits
Photography by Victoria Yee
Copyright
This book is written as a source of information only. The information
contained in this book should by no means be considered a substitute for
the advice of a qualified medical professional, who should always be
consulted before beginning any new diet, exercise, or other health
program.
All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information
contained in this book as of the date published. The author and the
publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects arising
from the use or application of the information contained herein.
THE SWING! Lose the Fat and Get Fit with This Revolutionary Kettlebell
Program. Copyright © 2012 by Tracy Reifkind. All rights reserved under
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®, and HarperOneTM are trademarks of HarperCollins
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon
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EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2012 ISBN 9780062104243
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